Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – We All Laughed Edition

Stephen Colbert, Tony Bennett, and some Gershwin – Who could ask for anything more?
Be sure to catch the Stephen in Vanity Fair – now on-line. And here’s your Zeitgeist for September 27, 2007.

The Wordinistas
Name dropping from the Literati.

• Stephen Colbert: A loon is not a duck! – Laura’s Birding Blog: “He apparently needs more bird information than simply instructions on how to explain about the birds and the bees to that young eagle who is his adopted son. Stephen may be gutly, eneagled, good, and not just a true American hero–he IS America. But he’s no ornithologist. “
• An Open Letter to Stephen Colbert – Jeanne Williamson: “…October 9, 2007. Coincidentally, that is also the release date of my first book,… I am writing to apologize for the unintended consequences to your book sales – just as I also apologize to Ken Follett and Eric Clapton, who also have the misfortune to have books scheduled for release on October 9.”
• What’s so funny about endangered languages? – The Language Log (U. Penn): “The show was introduced like so: Tonight — half the world’s languages have gone extinct. I tell them: “good riddance” and “adios”. C’mon, it’s a little funny. Especially from a man who changed his name so that it’s pronounced with a “soft t”.”

Stephen exemplifies “Teach For America” goals.
D.Ed., please!

• Say what you want about Joel Klein’s policies… – Blog and Deliver: “In response Klein joked (lamely) that Colbert’s focus on “real serious discipline” is exactly what city schools need. I’m not sure he was being all that facetious: Colbert’s character embodies all six qualities Teach for America defines as intrinsic to “teaching as leadership.” So what can we learn about school leadership from Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA?:”

Six Degrees of J. Alfred Prufrock
Obviously, the metaphor-off was a high point of Sean Penn’s career. But it still hurts to remember Stephen crying about his loss.

• Sean Penn, With His Own Two Eyes – LA Weekly: “Forget whether you agree with him or not (and how couldn’t you?), how about a little appreciation for the sheer poetry of it? That speech, and those lines in particular, earned him a rare moment of comic relief on The Colbert Report, during which he and Stephen Colbert engaged in a Meta-Free-Phor-All judged by former poet laureate Robert Pinksy. Penn won the contest 10,000 points to 1 by working the soiled-and-blood-soaked imagery into every metaphor, whether the category was world leaders or love.”

Whatever you may think about Cenk Uygur…
I think I like his dad.

• Why Brian Williams is Irrelevant – Huffington Post (Cenk Uygur): ” Air America would like you to know that my dad also listens to my show, and finds it brilliant. Though I do get the occasional, “You should be more funny like that Colbert guy. He is very talented.” Thanks, Dad. I appreciate that.”

Know Your Demographic
Let them know you appreciate them.

• To Make a Long Story Short … Krause talks Six Feet Under, Sally plays first lady, and more! – After Elton: “in GQ, Stephen Colbert lists the things that are making him gay, and AfterElton.com is not among them. Frowny-face.”
• Morning Roundup: Would you trust this man? edition – Houstonist: “”We’re trying to add a little levity, a little lightness to an education piece,” Metro’s George Smalley told Channel 13. But the film seems to have missed the mark: “You think it was funny?” Dolcefino asked a Metro bus passenger after screening the film. The reply: “It was stupid.” Looks like they should have gotten the real Colbert.”
• Kevin Smith talks gay bears on Letterman – After Elton: “As a side note, between this, Stephen Colbert’s bear fixation (which has extended to the gay variety a number of times for jokes) and BearForce One, are bears having the Best Year Ever?”

The best part of anything he’s part of
One opinion about Stephen Colbert in The Simpsons

• Simpsons season opener leaves viewers reaching for their Duff – The Gateway:
  

  And suddenly, after the commercial break, a mysterious stranger enters from stage left. Could it be? Is that—why, yes it is! Stephen Colbert, playing a character who’s not Stephen Colbert! Alright, maybe he looks like Colbert, and dresses like Colbert, and uses all of the same Colberisms that Colbert himself uses, but in a casting choice that hasn’t even been considered recently, a celebrity providing only his voice for an original character is a welcome change in the world of Simpsons cameos.

  Sadly, Colbert’s appearance is truly the peak of the episode. Followed by the overused “Homer gets a new job” angle and yet another needless musical montage, the episode quickly sinks back down into the depths whence it came, to await a fan of less discriminating tastes.

Six Degrees: Dueling Cheese Balls
Not having watched but one episode of Martha Stewart, and that was back in the 80’s sometime, I’m not sure if Amy’s was the standard guest appearance…

• Amy Sedaris and Peonies – Martha Stewart.com: Video of Amy Sedaris’s appearance available – watch the “Cheese Balls” segment and the “Crudites” segment. One of my favorite exchanges:
  

  • Amy: You’re going to put in like a teaspoon of bong water [as she has been calling the A-1 Sauce]
  • Martha: Bong water… BOG water? Are you saying BOG water?
  • Amy: Uhm, yea. That’s what I’m saying…

Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Pundits
Our friends at CCInsider found these PunditFight avatars of Jon and Stephen and a whole host of the pundit class.

• Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Wrestlers? – CCInsider: “Well, no, and probably never, but J-Stew and S-Co have joined the league that includes Bill O’Reilly, Al Franken and more: PunditFight: The Political Arena. After ten minutes, I still don’t know if it’s a game or what, but these avatars are adorable. “

Six Degrees of Tek Jansen
A peek behind the curtain of Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Squad 7: The New Tek Jansen Adventures – on screen and in print.

• Tek Jansen Begins New Adventures with Flickerlab – Cold Hard Flash: “Flickerlab, a New York-based design and animation studio, has joined the Colbert Report production effort. “
• Quite the Adventure – drawingonnapkins: “These are just a couple of designs I worked on for the latest Tek piece. The first version of Tek wasn’t spacey enough, I agree. The girl is Tek’s gf, Jana, who used to be named Ginny. The Colbert peeps were/are alot of fun to work with, not too picky at all, they let us worry about the art, while they worried about the story.”
• Q&A with Scott Chantler – Living Between Wednesdays:
  

  Q: Are there issues planned beyond #3 in the Tek Jansen series? If so, will you be involved?

  It’s planned as a five-issue miniseries. My work actually won’t appear beyond the first issue…while it was a great gig to be involved with, I’ve just had too many offers lately, on my own projects, to have been able to stick with it.
  …
  Q: Were you a fan of Stephen Colbert when you were asked to work on the comic? Were you familiar with his space hero alter-ego?

  Yes, I’d been a fan of Colbert’s since The Daily Show first started airing in Canada. And while we began work on the comic before the animated Tek Jansen segments began airing on the show, I was always kept aware of what was going on, in terms of being able to see the model sheets and other concept work.

On screen in The Hamptons
Stephen is interviewed in a documentary about cartoonist Gahan Wilson. We’re trying to find out more about this documentary – the film’s website is “under construction”. But here is an announcement about it’s premiere at the Hamptons film fest.

• PR | 15th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival – indieWire Insider: “Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still WEIRD (US, World Premiere) Dir. Steven-Charles Jaffe. This portrait of legendary cartoonist Gahan Wilson offers a fascinating and candid glimpse into the artist’s life and work, simultaneously reveal a nightmarish perspective on modern adult life. Featuring interviews with Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, Hugh Hefner and Stan Lee, among others.”

15 Seconds of Fame
Let’s face it… I’d take 15 seconds on the Colbert Report to 15 minutes with Andy Warhol.

• uh WHAT – thelastboy.livejournal.com: “i was on the colbert report last night. it’s the second (of three, out of 40,000) call recorded on this segment: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=103114 it’s kind of an in-joke with regular colbert watchers, and i don’t even think it’s that funny. but it happened.”
• How We Ended Up On Colbert Report: The New Colbert Direct – PaidContent.org: “Stephen Colbert skewers the NBC Direct offering, and in turn, we end up in a blink-and-you-miss-it mention on the show, pointing out a quote in Staci’s story on the NBC digital media downloads service. And also unveils his own new offering: Colbert Direct, the ad-breaks that come in between the show.”

Adding to Craig’s list?
Eric Alter witnesses another inductee to WristSTRONG by Craig Newmark. We’re watching Craig’s site for a photo.

• You’ve got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend … – Altercation (Media Maters): “Also at my table were Craig Newmark — who was Arianna’s date — and Salman Rushdie. Craig and I discussed the threat he represents to journalism and democracy — again, in a friendly, civil fashion, and again, agreed to discuss it in more detail in the future. When the dinner ended, Craig took the wristband that Stephen Colbert had given him and gave it to Salman, which he said he was bound to do by the rules of who is more famous. He then took Rushdie’s photo and asked his permission to blog about it. I think bloggers should always ask permission to blog about private conversations, by the way, and I salute Craig for doing so. It almost never happens.”

Fantasy Saturday Night Football League
Imagining what skits LeBron James could do with the “sketchateers” when he hosts Saturday Night Live this weekend.

• LeBron, meet Stuart Smalley – Altercation (Media Maters): “The Ambiguously Gay Duo The cartoon superheroes consider telling the world about their sexual leanings. Ace (voiced by Stephen Colbert) and Gary (voiced by Steve Carell) decide to consult someone else who has lived in the closet while working in a high-profile field. So they call John Amaechi (voiced by LeBron James). Amaechi tells them they should be honest about who they are, but never use their superpowers to help Jerry Sloan.”

Big thanks to MsInterpreted for several of these links.

• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 13, 2010
• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 3, 2010
• Please don’t sue us – An open letter to Tony Fox, PR rep for Viacom
• Eye Candy: Stephen Colbert at Christ Child Society’s Great Gatsby Gala