Friday Free-for-all

Totally online. If it’s a classic episode (Rain Dance Off; Better Know A Lobbyist Gun Control interview, Bill O’ Reilly profanity parody) I pop in a tape the next afternoon during the repeat. (“Tape” as in VCR tape, like our great-great-grandparents used! I know! Shocking, right???). So I have a nice little tape of my favorite moments when I want to lay down on the couch and enjoy.

It’s a highly recommended method if you can’t stay up late. I still have my favorite episodes in case the internet goes out, and I never have to watch any commercials. (After watching the show online I really can’t stand commercials anymore. Especially the creepy Santa natural male enhancement ones. Does CC show that all across the country, or just here? Because they seriously creep me out. That is all.)

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ColbertGirl27
September 5th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

Hey, no shame in taping on the good old reliable VCR. Same here.

And yes, those Santa male enhancement commercials run here in LA. Bizarre, dumb and unnecessary. As we’ve said before, the caliber of the show never matches the caliber of the commercials. Sigh.

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TruthPower
September 6th, 2008 at 3:24 am

They seriously need to stop showing that commercial! What is the point of showing that now when it isn’t even Christmas? Is there a reason? And Comedy Central seriously needs to stop showing that I Am America And So Can You bit at the end. We get it. He has a book that everyone has.

ReCaptcha: banquet U-boat

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I watch it live and then usually watch the 8pm re-run the next night. I might want to consider getting a life…

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Definitely watch it live. I tried recording and watching it later (I really, really did), primarily because I have trouble getting to sleep anyhow, and I didn’t need the added difficulty of trying to come off of my “Colbert high” before bed. Problem is, I’m still *really* not a morning person, so not watching it live meant waiting until after work the next day, which utterly sucks when you don’t usually get home from the office until eight or nine, at best.

I periodically try to shift my schedule to do the record-and-watch-before-work thing, but it has never come close to “taking”, and I just can’t bear to miss out on all the fun deconstruction of the show in that initial 24-hour period after it airs. So … live.

And thanks, Comedy Central, for the permanent black bags under my eyes.

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DB
September 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

I hear the black bags sentiment. The main reason it’s bad for me to stay up is the “Colbert High” you mentioned. After the show, I have to come on the site, chat via IM with my buddies, watch the comments and votes in the R.A.P.S., or finish an Episode Guide. If I watch the show, I rarely go to bed until 11:45p, which is bad since I have to be at work at 8:30a.

I love that instant feedback that we get with the R.A.P.S. thread. It’s really a rush to share the experience with other fans so soon after a show, especially when there’s an Urgent Fangirl Alert during the show. The active and postivie community is one of my favorite parts of participating in the site.

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Lisa
September 5th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

I agree. I LOVE the R.A.P.S threads too. I think it really initiates some great conversation between Zoners and perhaps may be much less work than live blogging during and just after the show, though on special occasions, I think live blogging is great (i.e., after the strike ended). Props to Jenny with a Y for doing such a great job on them. : )

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Jenny with a Y
September 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am

Thanks for the shout-out Lisa. R.A.P.S. is so much fun!!! I love being a part of such an active, thoughtful online community. I enjoy all of the discussions about the show. It’s great to be able to read everyones immediate impressions of what they just watched. I’m such a numbers geek, I also keep close track of the polls.

I have the black bags under my eyes, too. I always intend to post the R.A.P.S. thread, watch it for a few minutes to make sure the poll is working, and then go to bed by 1 am at the latest. This NEVER happens. I find that I end up chatting with friends online, responding to e-mails, watching the poll, and reading all of the comments about the episode. It’s not unusual for me to still be awake at 1:30 or 2 am. I have to get up by 6:30 or 7:00 am so I’m always tired during the week. Evening naps help with the fatigue but they also ensure that I’ll stay up later than I should.

I have always been a night person. I used to wait and watch the 8:30 pm rerun of TCR so that I could be in bed by 10:30 or 11:00 pm. It was terribly frustrating because it would sometimes take me an hour or two to fall asleep. The quality of my sleep wasn’t good either.

The problem I had with not watching TCR at 11:30 pm was that I was always late to join in the discussion on NFZ. I couldn’t stand that! The morning after Stephen did the Starbucks segment with the shower scene, I went to Starbucks and overheard people talking about it. I hated being so out of the loop.

Lacolberta
September 5th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

I wish I was in central time so I wouldn’t feel so guilty stayin up late to watch and then because I get up at 6, I’m sleepy all day at work….I’m programmed to get 8 hrs, anything else I’m useless and now that I’m not in school anymore, I can’t sleep in.

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Live. I go insane if I can’t watch it live.

Also, Make McCain Exciting Bluescreen Challenge, anyone? There’s going to be soooo much more material to work with from the speech last night. They almost can’t not mention it.

(Heh, recaptcha is ‘mobilization talks.’ How appropriate.)

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I have Tivo and when I’m in school I usually go to bed relatively early or don’t really feel like watching it at night, so I watch it in the morning while I eat breakfast. During the summer I watch it just about every night unless, again, I’m not in the mood, and then I watch it in the morning. I ccan barely watch anything online with dial-up -.-

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I much prefer to watch it semi-live, in that we (hubby and I, who’s also an It-Getter) always set our DVR to record both shows (just in case we fall asleep before they come on) and usually start watching the recording after TDS is over so we don’t have to watch commercials, as they are evil.

However, our exceptionally shoddy cable service (I’m lookin’ at you, Comcast) is really pushing us both to the brink and are seriously considering switching to satellite. Though, if the box we get doesn’t come with a DVR-esque capabilities, we may reconsider. And don’t even get me started on the bandwidth cap they’re imposing.

I seriously couldn’t imagine not watching the show before bed. I get edgy and grumpy when I don’t have my Stephen fix at night. I’m with Ms. I — I’m usually on such a high after it ends that sleeping isn’t so easy. And depending on my day, I try to watch the reruns at 8:30 if I can. There is no such thing as too much Stephen. : )

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Live when I can, reruns or online when I can’t.

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ColbertGirl27
September 5th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Hi Shruti,

Were you at the TCR taping on Tuesday, September 2? DB suggested you were there the same night that I was there. I hate the idea that I missed a conversation with a Zoner!

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Shruti
September 5th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

I wish!! Nope, I’ve never been to NYC, let alone to a taping of TCR.

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laughing at nothing
September 6th, 2008 at 3:10 am

ColbertGirl27,

I think DB meant Shishu — she was the girl you spoke with in line. I don’t think she comes to NFZ very often, but in her Colboard report she wrote about the serenade. ;D Your dream came true!

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ColbertGirl27
September 6th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Thanks for the heads up!

100% online.

(I don’t have cable — my tv is a little tiny thing that barely gets 1 and a half channels.)

I love the new full episode players on the Comedy Central sites — MUCH better than the old segment clips. I usually watch during lunch or dinner the next day, but sometimes catch up a day or two later.

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if I’m at a home (either house or college) I’m watching it live. at home the rents have cable and I just sit in my living room. here I have DirecTV but I know nothing about how it works– it was cheap so I assume it can’t record anything. I’m even a little iffy with the remotes…so I just keep the TV on CC most of the time! the next day if something was exceptional I’ll go to hulu to rewatch it.

I agree with everyone else that the late hours are a pain! I have to be up and out pretty early. teenagers are supposed to have 9 hours of sleep a night and in order to get that I would have to sleep through Colbert. I have been contemplating going to be earlier and then being rested and smarter and happier and healthier…but then when the time comes I cannot bring myself to do it. yikes.

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I watch it live even though it deprives me of much-needed sleep since I start work at 8am everyday and thus have to get up at 6:30! As some of you mentioned, I’m always anxious to discuss the episode right after it airs and I can’t stand the idea of waiting for the rerun until the following night.

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In Australia the Report airs a few hours after it’s screened in the US, 7pm our time which is actually the same time as the ABC News. Which makes it a slightly awkward time (even if I decide to watch the Nine News at six, my journalist dad will usually want the TV at seven). I just record both TDS and the Report and either watch them live or at some other point during the evening.

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I used to watch it online whn i was in india…now, ‘m in NYC so i can actually watch it on TV…!
BTW, I just bought a copy of IAMASCY and a Stephen Colbert bag from Barnes and Nobles…!!!

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okay, i know we all love TCR a lot, but i just have to say, for all the TDS fans here, Jon Stewart was on FIRE this week. stephen had some good shows this week but it seemed overshadowed by jon’s amazing RNC coverage, in my opinion. the “sarah palin gender card” clip already has 2 million views online from the TDS site alone, and that episode as a whole was dangerously close to sublime.

what did you guys think?

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owlst4r
September 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am

Jon rocked faces this week! I was so happy to see Brian Williams on again (I don’t watch his show, but everytime I see him now I can’t help but smile). But Jon floored me with his Newt Gingerich interview. And Sam Bee was amazing, too. (I haven’t seen Friday’s episode yet, but I can’t wait.)

It all makes me almost want to get into news reporting (but only if I could be on TDS xD).

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i watch it (west coaster here) at 830 and then again at 1030. and depending on work the next day…maybe even 730a, 1130a and 530p.
i missed all the shows this week being in NY and all (sad!) but i’m catching up now with my iTunes.

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Since I live in Brazil and we don’t have Comedy central,I have to download .I tried to watch trough the Comedy central’s website but my computer didn’t work it so well.

I can’t understand why The Daily Show Global Edition is broadcasted here in TWO channels and we have no Colbert.I’m really mad at this.

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Hi all. I attended my first live taping of TCR this week and I’m still reeling from this surreal, wonderful, too-good-to-be-true experience. What better place to share my experience than here? Tell me if anyone else was there on Tuesday. Lisa, weren’t you there on Wednesday? DB gave me the green light to post the entire thing, so here it is:

My sister and I arrived at the studio around 2 p.m. Since we didn’t see a line, I asked an intern standing out there (apparently he was saving a parking space for someone) where we should stand and he kindly pointed us to a black fence that we could stand by until the gate opened at a later point. I found one Colboarder already waiting in line whose mom eventually came and thus my sister and I were #3 and #4.

Another two girls arrived shortly after us and were also sisters…students at Brown and Stanford no less! Mark, the audience coordinator, eventually came out and, as everyone else has mentioned, is one of the sweetest people who stays so calm and collected even when dealing with even the most difficult situations. Two interns eventually came out and asked for our names and ID’s…really polite and hospitable. You certainly can see how everyone on Stephen’s staff shares the same traits of professionalism and warmth.. We were eventually led into the waiting room after passing through security and had the chance to go to the bathroom and then sit down and watch some of the best clips from TCR including the infamous BKAD with Wexler and the tete-a-tete with Eleanor Holmes Norton. I loved the TCR poster in the room which exclaimed “It’s what Lincoln would have watched!”

Mark eventually came out and told us the unfortunate news that Stephen and his staff were rewriting the entire show (!), but that we would eventually be led into the studio. In the meantime, he threw out some trivia questions (didn’t raise my hand quick enough!) and held his own Q&A session in which we could ask anything about the running of the show. At one point a woman asked who the guest was that evening and he sheepishly responded that he didn’t know, but the show was going to be great no matter what. Haha. I asked him if the Q&A with Stephen is recorded just for their personal archive and he responded that these segments were not recorded, but thought it was unfortunate since Stephen really shines in these off-the-cuff moments.

Another guy (forget his name) came out briefly to tell us the importance of cheering and laughing for Stephen like it was nobody’s business.

We FINALLY were led into the studio around 7 p.m. (they froze the TV monitor at the point when Stephen is placing his behind against the glass as he dances to Copacabana…haha) and we were seated in the third row, near the center. I shyly asked Mark if there was any chance we could sit in the front row and he said no, but assured us that our seats were still great. Although not front row seats, they were still excellent seats for seeing Stephen at both his main desk and interview desk and I felt guilty for bothering Mark at all.

Pete, the warm-up comedian, came out and did a fabulous job…especially since he must have been out there for forty-five minutes! There were quite a few Canadians in the audience that night and he gave them a hard time in the nicest way. Interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit: He cited John Kerry as a not-so-nice a guest but said that Mike Huckabee was one of the nicest guests they had ever had on the show. He asked if anyone in the audience was going to be one of those “I was this close to Stephen” people and one girl in the front row raised her hand. Luckily my sister did not point me out. Pete shared some funny family stories and eventually said “OK, so this is the point when I start asking if anyone in the audience has any hidden talents such as magic tricks they would like to share.” We all clapped for him as we knew he had to entertain the audience for an especially long time that evening. At one point, four VIPS filed into one row and Pete joked that no one was listening to his jokes anymore because of these rude individuals who were interrupting his act. He asked them who they were and they explained they were relatives of Stephen’s at which point Pete suddenly became far more respectful. Haha. They appeared to be two brothers and two nephews of Stephen’s, but I’m not sure. Since Stephen has brothers that are significantly older, I’m hoping that they have sons that are about my age! The two supposed nephews looked cute and nerdy in that artsy sort of way and I believe one was wearing an argyle sweater. Pete eventually caught a signal that Stephen was close to being ready and getting the last touches on his make-up (must have been almost 8 p.m. at this point!).

Mark came out and said one of the best moments during Q&A was when a young African-American guy said to Stephen “Dad?” and Stephen, without thinking, recognized him and called him by some fictional name. Forgive me for forgetting the details on this question. Mark gave one final pep talk and then………….

Stephen leaped out of nowhere, ran around the desk with arms outstretched, high-fived everyone in the front row and performed his famous twirl! A woman in a black cocktail dress (not Allison Silverman) was placing some paperwork on Stephen’s desk and he came up behind her, put his hand around her waist and jokingly said “Well, hello, who are you?” I obviously wanted to be this woman, but I digress. I will note here that at no point during the show could I completely believe Stephen was there in person. He is truly larger-than-life and has one megawatt smile.

Then the Q&A session began:

Q: Stalin or Hitler?
A: (Stephen looking puzzled) You mean to have sex with?

Q: How many houses do you own?
A: I’ll have to check with my people.

Q: I am deaf in one ear and I know that you are as well. How have you coped with this? Any advice?
A: Which ear are you deaf in? Because if it’s a certain ear, that means you’re gay. Oh shit, that makes me gay. Don’t worry, you’ll make it in life man (trembling voice on verge of crying). Don’t you hate it when you’re listening to your iPOD and you’re only hearing the beat and not the lyrics (then makes some onomatopoeia sound for the beats). There was a little more dialogue between the two of them, but I couldn’t catch all of it.

Q: You’ve spoken many languages on your show, but not Japanese. How come?
A: Stephen responds in Japanese. Case closed!

I raised my hand to ask the final question and Stephen first said “Yes, sir” since he first saw one of his staff in the aisle right next to me raise his hand for some random reason. He laughed, quickly apologized to me and said “Yes, miss.” I’m not offended by miss when Stephen says it My question was not he most original, but I really wanted to ask it even though it had been asked at least once before.

Q: During the Philadelphia primary, you began singing “L-O-V-E” to Michelle Obama, but you were rudely interrupted and I wondered if you could finish the song for us tonight.

A: “L…is for the way you look tonight…” At this point, I fainted and was taken out of the studio by my sister who was luckily a nurse. Just kidding! Stephen sang the entire song and looked straight at me for the first few bars and before surprising the woman in front of me by suddenly putting his face right in front of hers. This must have been really something for her as she was the one person in the audience who had never even seen the show before! He then ended the song by bending backwards with arms outstretched and microphone in hand. Everyone clapped. Stephen Colbert sang a love song to me. I heard Stephen sing in person. Words cannot express….

Before we knew it, the show had begun and I witnessed first-hand why Stephen Colbert was where he was in the ladder of success: professionalism, impeccable timing and the ability to juggle so multiple things at once. Although not the strongest episode, I think Stephen gave it 100% after an exhaustive rewrite that evening and starting the show an hour later than usual…and still taking time for the Q&A! Between commercial breaks, he threw out Wrist Strong bracelets and what appeared to be small silver pepper shakers (?) to the audience. He made some funny faces during the commercial breaks and at one point my sister and I could have sworn he was looking our way as he was making funny expressions while drinking his coke! It’s funny, but during breaks you feel that he is still performing for you, but is somewhere in between his character and real self. At one point, he put his legs up on his desk and did some stretching moves and pretended to stretch his groin area. I know that sounds odd. You had to be there to see what I mean. He had his make-up touched up and jokingly started brushing the make-up artist’s hair. Allison Silverman, who looked especially tired that night, came out and consulted with Stephen on some script changes.

I LOVED watching Stephen’s reactions as they played all of the “Make McCain Exciting Videos” and from what I could tell, he especially enjoyed watching the O’Reilly and Elvis videos. I could see him mouthing McCain’s words.

Before the interview, Stephen quickly said to Laura D’Andrea Tyson “You can’t leave now!” I found her to be a rather dry guest who just seemed to be reeling off statistics and not providing enough actual dialogue, but I thought Stephen did a great job and I enjoyed his joke regarding her boldness to wear a splash of color throughout the fall and of course the joke about her sucking his teat. To the side of the interview table, a man held up a piece of paper with a number one on it to signal to Stephen when he had one minute left.

Stephen only fumbled his lines twice: briefly when he talked about oil drilling and at the very end of the show when he briefly wears the Mary Tyler Moore beret and says how he blows our minds. Smiling, he said “I just couldn’t get through the show without f***ing it up at the very end.” I loved the second fumble since he adorably placed the hat back on his head, rested his chin in his palm and pouted in the cutest way as he waited for the camera to roll again.

Afterwards, Stephen took the time to shake everyone’s hand in the first row and thanked all of us for coming. Mark then had us leave and we noticed that the bathrooms were now chained off. Haha! I guess they really like to get the audience out of there after they record our laughs!

While my sister took my picture in front of the TCR awning outside, Laura D’Andrea Tyson and Stephen’s relatives came outside. While I hoped that Stephen would soon follow, no such luck. I wouldn’t want to bother him anyhow if he came out to talk with family and friends.

Nevertheless, it was an amazing evening. Stephen’s unbelievable energy and charisma were something to behold and his willingness to sing “L-O-V-E” upon my request was well…something I will never forget. This was truly one of the most amazing days of my life.

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Smashley
September 8th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

i <3 your taping report!

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ColbertGirl27
September 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Thanks. I think I might post it again this Friday since I’m afraid that I posted it too late and not many people read it.

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smashley
September 9th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

you could always post it on the colboard. thats where mine ended up.

i need to consolidate it though because i keep remembering bits that need to be added. i also need to finish the rest of my report about NY.

Had to vote for “Watch it live” because my choice wasn’t on the poll…

I watch it every morning at 9:30am Central on Comedy Central. The BEST way to start the day (except sex).

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