As a more reasonable follow up to some of the doom and gloom pronouncements for what will happen to The Daily Show and, more particularly, The Colbert Report once the elections are over, NPR weighs in with this interesting piece:
Your Principles Or Your Obsequiousness: Which Would ‘Stephen Colbert’ Choose?
by Marc HirshElections are easy. Comedy is hard. Especially comedy that hinges more or less directly on the outcome of elections …
If McCain wins, of course, then it’s business as usual. But the prospect of an Obama victory raises a much more interesting dilemma: how will “Stephen Colbert” react?
On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be any question about it. The Colbert character has spent the entire election cycle warning Americans that Obama is a secret Muslim who, if elected, will be sworn into office on a gay baby and invite all of his terrorist buddies to sleep on the White House couches. So Colbert is going to take that and run, right? He’ll report to his viewers from a nightmare world existing entirely in his own imagination, a pundit ranting hysterically against the system?
Maybe. But here’s what’s interesting about Colbert’s options in a post-Obama world: he could choose to go in exactly the opposite direction and still be entirely consistent with the character he’s spent three years perfecting. That’s because “Colbert,” as longtime viewers know — the character, that is, and not the performer — is marked by a tendency to blindly accept whatever authority is placed in front of him. Much of his slavish praise of George W. Bush has come from a position that it’s un-American to question the President. After all, that’s what makes him the President, isn’t it?
Not only that, “Colbert” is a follower, willing to jump on whatever bandwagon seems to have the most momentum and then shouting the loudest to make it seem like he was there first.
. . .
So is “Stephen Colbert,” at his core, an ideologue or a sycophant? Perhaps only Stephen Colbert, the one without the quotation marks, knows which one it’ll be.
Intriguing! Mr. Hirsch is clearly an it-getter and has given some actual thought to Stephen’s character — I’m looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.
That makes sense, I think we’ll get a taste of what’s to come re Obama with “Stephen Colbert” tomorrow night during the live show.
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I dunno. I’m not sure I’m totally on board with Hirsch’s theory that Stephen will come to willingly accept Obama if he is elected. His character is a die-hard Republican, despite the shots he occasionally takes at Bush (sometimes, unknowingly, since real Stephen often claims his character is a “poorly informed, high status idiot”). I know it took his character awhile to embrace McCain, but McCain is still a Republican. I don’t think the transition from Republican supporter to Democratic supporter is going to come quickly, if at all. Remember, that’s the fun of Stephen’s character — watching him stick to his guns despite how unpopular his views sometimes are.
As you can see, hubby and I have spent much time debating about how “Stephen” will change if Obama is elected. : )
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LOL! “Brown-haired guy who is not Steve Doocy…” (I know they’re spelled differently but it’s close enough for me.)
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Well he did “endorse” Obama. I guess we’ll find out after tomorrow.
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one issue is viewership. supporters of Obama, including the very enthusiastic ones, are also the ones who overwhelmingly watch the show. they might not appreciated being mocked in their fervency. plus, from what I’ve seen, the writers are kind of enjoying peppering “Colbert”‘s rants with ever more unintended liberal comments. I don’t think that’s setting up for a switch. in order to stay the part of the crazy conservative, I think Colbert’ll have to be critical of Obama as long as Obama does everything right. what if Obama’s administration did something that doesn’t work, or might even be a bad idea? (which it probably will, at some point…) will they decide to have Colbert mock Obama for making the mistake, and if so, how?
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I’ve pretty much thought the same thing myself. And if Stephen and the writers initially decide to have Stephen against Obama, they could always switch to the other tactic– and vice versa– if they see more comedy in another direction.
They could even wobble back and forth. It’d be pretty hysterical to see “Stephen” panicking about what he should do, after all.
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That “gay baby” line is still hilarious to me. Whatever he does tomorrow (oh God, it’s tomorrow) and Thursday, I want to hear “gay baby.”
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great analysis, from everyone! i think he’ll stick to being a diehard republican for a bit, but as his ‘i endorse BO’ video shows, its all about how SC is the center of the universe. His supporting or not supporting BO is predicated on how it makes it all about about him, which is the key determinant to the character, together with ideology
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Hirsch has an interesting theory, but I think he’s wrong. The reason why Stephen blindly accepts whatever authority is thrust in front of him is because a conservative is in office, just as Fox News and O’Reilly have been so “support our president” these past 8 years. During the Clinton years, they weren’t so gung ho about the presidency, and I think Stephen would be the same way should Obama win.
Stephen’s caricature adjusts to the movements of the Fox conservatives (example: initially hating John McCain and then supporting him). Whether or not Dems are in power or out of power, Fox conservatives are always going to be playing the victimization and fear cards. Stephen will most likely follow this pattern.
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I think you have it right, mrtigger. “Stephen” is not going to all of a sudden become a liberal.
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Yeah, why did it take until comment no. 8 to postulate that “Stephen” will just take his cue from Fox News “and Friends” (just like he always does, from the very 1ST episode) if and when Obama gets elected?
We’ll just see HOW Fox News will change (which I am very interested on how it will go down there, btw), then we’ll see how “Stephen” will conduct his show.
I applaud Hirsh’s it-getting, but he needs to look DEEPER in his gut than that. /jk
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Hmm. It’s hard to figure out exactly. I don’t think you can say for sure that “Stephen’s” “stand behind your President” values override anything and everything; he’s clearly a conservative character, and if you follow that train of thought, it would mean suddenly “Stephen” will be a version of Keith Olbermann rather than O’Reilly. I’m not sure if that will work, in part because I don’t know what Olbermann will rant about if Obama’s elected. I just think most of all that “standing behind your President” is just an excuse “Stephen” uses to fend off criticism of the President – not an actual value, just a solid sound byte to throw out to win a debate. I don’t think he’ll back up Obama as President just because he’s President the exact same way I don’t expect O’Reilly to say the “stand behind the President” line for a while if the Democrats win. In the end, “Stephen” is just a hypocrite.
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Very ineresting! Certainly food for thought that.
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