Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist: Remembrance Day Edition

Almost through week one of the strike. I’m currently re-visiting November/December ’06 episodes as a way to satiate my ‘Report’ cravings. Here’s your zeitgeist for November 11, 2007.

Best Seller Watch
For the 4th week in a row, I Am America (And So Can You!) tops the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction best seller list for November 18, 2007.

Strike related stories
Why Letterman aired during the last strike, why we need TDS and TCR to keep Washington sane, and some advice on surviving the strike for fans.

• Hollywood Producer Reflects on Last Writers’ Strike – NPR’s Morning Edition (audio): Hollywood producer Robert Morton, who was executive producer of Late Night with David Letterman during the last writers’ strike in 1988, talks about what it was like when the Letterman show resumed production without writers and why they made that decision.
• Television Writers’ Strike Emergency Kit: “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” – The Statesman (Austin, TX): “Knowing that there isn’t anything that can actually replace television’s warm, loving glow, we put together a list of activities to help you get by until the strike is settled:”
• WGA Strike: Breaking Washington’s Funny Bone – National Journal: “On the surface, the Writers Guild of America strike hitting the entertainment industry would seem of little consequence in the nation’s capital. But consider this: The first casualties in the WGA strike have been the late-night talk shows and comedies that constitute an unofficial system of checks and balances on Washington. Without those programs, this town is in serious danger of taking itself even more seriously than it already does.”
• Timely advice on surviving writers strike – Connecticut Post: “Yes, I know that watching Joy, Whoopi, and the rest of “The View” gals scratch each other’s eyes out is no substitute for Stephen Colbert’s bon mots, but it’s better than nothing. Actually, I prefer watching the inspired, impromptu chatting between Regis and Kelly to sitting through, say, the latest Letterman Top Ten list. So why not skip the late night reruns, turn in early and enjoy some morning programming?”

Colbert ’08 related stories
Most have moved on from this story but a few have thought about it and written some interesting observations about what Stephen’s brief run taught us.

• The Colbert Rapport – The Nation: “Campaigns like Colbert’s find their audience when people are bitter and are seeking an outlet for their frustration. This isn’t light entertainment; it’s satire, and satire is rooted in anger.

  Satire is an unstable mix of idealism and cynicism. It upholds a missing or degraded social or political value by brutally mocking its absence. The smirk is a mask for deep social concern. In times of malaise and disillusionment, satirists will find receptive audiences amongst the polity. The satirist speaks mirth to power; but that mirth, and its power, is only realized by the audience’s getting the joke. In this way, satire can help build a culture of resistance. “

• Stephen Colbert Smokes Out Political Ickiness – Charlotte’s Web Blog: “By shutting the door on Colbert’s candidacy, some argue the political establishment has revealed its true colors are not red, white and blue. Instead, they secretly salute the flag of monopoly, manipulation, disenfranchisement and hypocrisy.”
• Pssst, want the inside story on the inside story? – Los Angeles Times political blog: “Well, during the last day or so behind the scenes, the Clinton folks, who play hardball, have been shopping around to some writers (not this one) a story idea that a couple of prominent Obama supporters had lobbied the South Carolina Democratic Party’s executive council last week to keep Stephen Colbert off the state’s primary ballot, which they succeeded in doing.”
• WEB SLINGER – New York Post: “It’s too bad Barack Obama’s campaign team derailed Stephen Colbert’s bid to get his name on the presidential ballot in South Carolina, because few men possess Colbert’s skill in igniting a crowd. He did it again in late October at a ceremony to declare a “Stephen Colbert Day” in Columbia, S.C. Colbert turns his acceptance into a passionate stump speech, vowing to crush Georgia and Tennessee, and expounding on the superiority of his home state’s peaches. Next November, our money’s on whoever can lock this guy down as their V.P. Go cocks!”
• Stephen Colbert and the Value of Truthiness – First Things: “Such comedy serves a valuable purpose in the public life. Not only does Colbert keep us entertained, but his mock bunkum cuts through the real bunkum we hear so much these days—just as his mock truthiness reveals the real truthiness that infects nearly all of public life.”

Colonel Wilkerson reporting, Sir.
Lawrence Wilkerson discusses his experience appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’

• Prof discovers ‘truthiness’ – The Flat Hat (College of William and Mary):
  

  “[I] decided that I would [appear on the show] because principally my students, on both campuses, here at William and Mary and at the George Washington University, told me that that’s where they get the predominant amount of their news,” he said. “So I thought, well, what better venue to speak to the students from?”

  …

  “The audience is really in a fever pitch — they’re ready to laugh, they’re ready to scowl, they’re ready to scream, they’re ready to holler,” he said. “When he does anything, it’s part of his character for it all to be focused on him.”

  Besides the Iraq War, Colbert and Wilkerson also discussed the TV personality’s bid for president. The day after the show aired, South Carolina Democrats squelched Colbert’s petition to run, supposedly because they did not see his bid as serious.

  Wilkerson, however, disagreed.

  “It struck me that he was very serious, both the serious side of him and the comic side of him,” he added. “[Colbert is serious about running] in the sense that political satire for him is a real meaningful statement on the condition of our politics.”

Six Degrees: Huffington Post now into fake news
236.com launches.

• “23/6″: Our New Comedy Site is Live! – Huffington Post:
  

  Has the writers’ strike left a comedy void in your life? Are you longing for Letterman? Jonesing for Jon Stewart? Craving new Colbert?

  If so, I’m excited to report that 23/6 is now live. 23/6 (www.236.com) is the satiric news and opinion site HuffPost has been developing with IAC/InterActiveCorp. The idea is that you come to the Huffington Post to see what’s happening in the world, then go to 23/6 to see the news turned inside out.

Gratuitous Name Dropping

• Warrior-Poet-Picketer – Adequate Yearly Chenille Sticks: “Anyway, both sides of the story are silly. You can’t legislate a moment of silence, it comes naturally whenever your U.S. History teacher asks you to come up with a scenario in which Taft-Hartley could be invoked to bring back the writers and producers on the Colbert Report.”
• Floridians back Giuliani for now – Palm Beach Post: “”Stephen Colbert could run in Florida, and you couldn’t make this primary any more of a joke,” Eldon said.”
• Sunday Forum: Blowhard nation – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Stephen Colbert’s unremitting send-up of the blowhard psyche makes him more famous by the nanosecond. The sitcom “The Office” has become a hit thanks to Steve Carell’s flawless portrayal of the blowhard boss, Michael Scott. How did blowhard-dom acquire this kind of “it” factor? How could it not have?”