Zeitgeist for August 25, 2007

As if it wasn’t bad enough to have The Colbert Report on a two week break, Fox has gone and canceled Anchorwoman. Here’s a sampling of Stephen in the Zeitgeist for August 25, 2007.

WristGate – The Mayor

• The Bloomberg Angle to Colbert’s ‘Wristgate’ – The City Room (New York Times blog): “The mayor’s chief spokesman, Stu Loeser, said the historic Bloomberg-Colbert summit was pre-arranged and taped last week. “We don’t believe they’d met before,” Mr. Loeser wrote in an e-mail message.”

The World is watching Stephen…
From the UnAmerican press – including a sudden blitz from the Guardian this week.

• POLAR COLBERT – 24hrs.ca: ” “Harper, it’s not your job to assert claims,” Colbert said. “Just repeat what the president [George W. Bush] says, add an ‘aboot’ and translate it into French.” All too accurate.”
• The Remainder Bin: Football, a Boot, and a Dose of Colbert – Pestiside.hu: “Stephen Colbert of the popular Colbert Report entertained his viewers with another Hungarian-related story, this time about the tribulations of András Feldmár, a Canadian psychologist of Hungarian origin, who was denied entry to the United States from Canada due to his writings in which he has admitted taking drugs.”
• Tugging on Branson’s beard – The Guardian: “Perhaps Branson was miffed at criticism of his beard which, according to Colbert, makes him look like a cross between “David Bowie and Pan the goat man.”
• The subtle, subversive Stephen Colbert – The Guardian: “What they might not know is that Stephen Colbert – whose show follows Stewart’s – is just as funny and arguably a good deal more subtle.”
• Netroots on the cocktail circuit – The Guardian: “This year, as demonstrated by the wide news coverage of the Yearly Kos convention in Chicago and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas – he appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, PBS’s Charlie Rose show and Comedy Central’s Colbert Report in the week after the convention – the netroots have come of age in the American political landscape. But the drawbacks to this acceptance have also become apparent.”

Stephen Colbert School of Commerce and Communication

• How I made my presentations a little better – 43Folders.com: “You know how Stephen Colbert does “The Wørd?” He directly addresses the audience while “slides” appear next to his head acting as a kind of Greek chorus.”
• Stephen Colbert Richard Branson Interview Trainwreck: The Hype Behind the Sale – BizCradle.com: “The interview between Colbert and Branson was a hit (you had to watch it…I’m not going to describe it). Make sure your next sales presentation has just the right amount of hype, mixed with a little mystery, and a good scoop of fun. It’s a classic mixture that will improve your sales.”

You can’t tell which way the train wrecked by looking at the tracks.
OK, when it was all conjecture in the press and bolosphere about what we would be seeing, it’s one thing… but after we saw the Colbert-Branson Trainwreck?

• Time killer: Richard Branson vs. Stephen Colbert – The Big Blog (Seattle Post-Intelligencer): “So Branson got mad. So mad, in fact, he doused Colbert with water from his water bottle after the interview like a little girl. Ever the professional, Colbert splashed him back.”
• Richard Branson Soaks Stephen Colbert – The Daily Reel: “From the unscripted jibes back and forth to the full-blown water fight (a la Wild n’ Crazy Kids), this truly is an interview gone out of control. “

Six Degrees: The Daily Show, yesterday and today

• At The Office with Ed Helms – IGN.com (via CCInsider): “What I miss about The Daily Show is feeling like when you’re knocking the wind out of hypocrisy in a way. Not that we had some mission statement, but it was fun to be a part of satire, because we made something that resonated with all of us”
• Rob Riggle is Alive and Well and Has Been Living In New York All Week – Huffington Post: “Of course, the big reveal from last night’s show was that the final report wasn’t really even close to “live in Iraq,” as Riggle made an appearance in the studio to smooch the anchor desk and empty his pockets of sand. But, it begged the question: Just how not live weren’t Riggle’s reports?”

Sarah Silverman riding coat tails
Um, sorry, but there is no “follow-up act” to Stephen Colbert – only followers and wannabees, thank you.

• Catch-22 things if you can – Tallahassee.com: “Comic kamikaze Sarah Silverman – who famously dissed Paris Hilton at the MTV Awards earlier this summer – is the headliner for this year’s FSU Homecoming PowWow in the Civic Center. … She’s the perfect follow-up act to last year’s sold-out PowWow with Stephen Colbert.”