ALTERNATE TITLE:
The Final Endgame Alpha Action Go Time Lift-Off Decide-icidal Hungry Man’s Extreme Raw Power Ultimate Voteslam Smackdown ’08 No Mercy: Judgment Day ’08
I’ll do a very nice episode guide here in a little bit, but for now, I’d like to just watch and enjoy the special. And Jenny is going to add a poll to this post once the show is over.
But use this post to do all your wonderful community contributions – I’d love to hear what everyone thinks about the show! I’ll work on the guide as soon as the show is over, but use this thread to give all of your feedback that is the wonderful awesomeness that is Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart in the SAME THEATER! For an hour! For us to watch!!!!
I read today in an article featuring an interview by Barry Julien that said that “there are insane amounts of jokes that were written. . . that no one will ever see.” They apparently wrote jokes for all kind of contingencies in the elections, so we should see a plethora of wonderful and interesting jokes tonight.
Please comment like crazy and give us your reactions to the special.
EDIT:
I’m still sitting here, basking in the fact that America Baracked the vote today. I hope this glow lasts for a long, long time. So instead of doing a guide, I just sat here and watched Obama speak, and watched Anderson Cooper in HD. However, I’d recommend reading Annie Wu’s liveblogging of the show on TV Squad to get a better idea of what happened tonight. I’ll do a guide later.
“JUICE IT!”
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Looks like I’ll be home to watch this afterall, sweet! And LMAO at those two openings.
“Jesus christ Stephen, a cockatoo!?”
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I loved the cuckatoo…especially as Stephen stroked him. He should have used his pirate voice! Arrrghhh!
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I figured just like Liberace that Jon would love a cockatoo
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Being a parrot owner this made me happier more than I can say.
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THIS IS EPIC!!!!!!!
lol you guys beat me to it cant believe we’re already postin’!
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^can you say that on TV? hehe
I don’t like Jon yelling at Stephen, it makes me involuntarily cringe!! but for some reason I really like hearing Stephen say “John Oliver.” is that weird?
I’m glad they put them at the same table.
“extreeeeeeeeeeemly”
(I really like this evasive thing they’re doing for Stephen, and also his really bad jokes.)
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I saw that Michael Vick joke coming from a mile away.
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grandpa???? hahahaha
live blogging what a concept, lol!
will he? that twitter in that Stephen thingy in that The Nation’s Home thing?
(am I adding value??)
series of tubes.
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“ACTUALLY LIVE”
Did not see the Obama Mardi Gras beads coming.
Best “fudging” newsteam!
Haha, the “Brimley” effect.
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stephen looks great under this light =P lol you can see his freckles…
okay now back to the important stuff!
i promise lol
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I checked to see if you were actually blogging live, and you weren’t, and then I was sad.
On the other hand, the concept of rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) with space-ray-guns that shoot out golden Viking helmets are definitely an avenue I’d like to see explored in further mini-animations.
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I was waiting for Jon to say “Grandpa? I’m only a year and a half older than you!”
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MAINSTREAM
I COULD PADDLE A CANOE IN YOU.
(where would you launch that canoe???)
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MAINSTREAM! I could paddle a canoe in you!!
I love Stephen telling Jon how it is :)
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“where would you launch that canoe”???
OMG too good
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Mainstream! Truth Bank!
You don’t know much about terrorists, do you, Jon?
I LOVE YOU AASIF!
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I could paddle a canoe in you!
Omg, Aasif’s face when Stephen addressed him XD
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lol good work all of us saying the same thing at the same time.
Stephen Jon interaction clearly goes over well with us. no offense to anyone but I am not laughing as much as I do on a regular night. oh well…
(covering Stephen’s mouth, haha)
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I know what you mean, aside from basically Jon and Stephen’s interactions this just isn’t the same funny as their regular shows.
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You don’t know much about terrorism…HAHAHAHA.
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Larry, what are you doing?
“Whatever I want.”
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OMG! One of the best lines of the night.
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Larry’s taking over the show!! I love it
But I am not ready for a “Cenac Attack”…he needs to get away from that sacred desk!
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aww i know, it was cute, but at the same time it felt so wrong =(
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lol they’re taking over the shows!!
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The Cenac Agenda! The desk is a big C for Cenac!
NOOOOOOO!
LMAO
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I want to put a C on my computer like that. (I already have a award for the literary excellence on it)
NOW I liked this last thing with the shows getting taken over, and Wyatt taking over Stephen’s store. that actually made me grin!!
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HAHAHAA How did you do that? I want a G on mine! Is it a sticker?
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well I used a Stephen T Colbert award for The literary excellence from in I am American and so can you.
I was thinking about how to get a T…I’d have to cut it out of an image and blow it up I think…
(recaptcha: Dem- named) !!!
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Wilmore/Cenac 2012!
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FIRST CHOCOLATE NEWS, NOW THIS!!
lmao so funny
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lol please scratch and sniff him!!!
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oh, fake Virginia ftw!
(scratch and sniff!)
I love their innuendos!!
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Oh, how I love “fake” Virginia. My former adopted state made me so proud last night!
I’ll also take Jon’s William & Mary shout-out. Go Tribe!
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I’m a little worried that Stephen’s going to choke on that pen.
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Jon is a silver fox
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I’m a holiday pinata, Jon. You burst me open and treats come out.
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oh “treats come out” !!!
he’s just giving us so many great quotes!
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“you burst me open and treats come out.”
this banter at the end is the BEST part of the show. like, I didn’t think you could feel that!! ahhhh
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a lot of feelings! :D
(I’m not sure I’m getting the “an historic night” joke. I didn’t watch any msm coverage of this…)
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I think this ending is the best part of the whole show
“meowgret thatcher”
Stephen completely shutting down
Rob Riggle in his underwear!?
too much
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I can’t stop laughing at Stephen just closing himself off to the world.
Wtf? Where’s Rob’s pants?
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I LOVE Stephen’s denial!!!
and Rob Riggle freaking out…why aren’t you wearing pants. all of these people getting upset is making me really happy!!!
(nice closeup of denial-Stephen!)
OKKKK John dragging Stephen along made me LOL.
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OMG THAT WAS SO GOOD.
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I bet Stephen was weeping for real. He’s such a sensitive sweetie ;)
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let’s not forget the oral fixation
Over way too soon
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Oh that pen was in full effect tonight. No wonder he usually uses that fancy pen — it’s too hard to chew on. LOL!
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I heard ‘em call it on i2008 and then heard people screaming outside and cars honking… Perfect. I’m watching C-SPAN now, but Stephen & Jon (et all) are the only ones I care to hear commentary from on TV.
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nice! I have the cars honking and people screaming effect here too!
I’m not watching C-SPAN though, I just turned off my TV. my channel never left comedy central…I’m not going to get analyzed by no one thanks!!!
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I liked hearing Jon and Stephen calling the election, too. I had the bedroom TV on CNN, so I rewound the TiVo and watched it. Nah, Jon’s was better. And without the creepy holograms (seriously, CNN: what was the point of that?).
Great show tonight, but a little slow getting started, I thought. Anybody else thought Jon and Stephen were thisclose to making out? Maybe it was just my overactive imagination… :)
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well, I didn’t think they were nearly close to making out, but one of my possible predicted jokes was that one would try to kiss the other over something at some point during the night.
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Were you having flashbacks to the 2004 special (actually, the “flashbacks” to 2000 within the 2004 special)? They came so close.Of course, everyone knows that the last slice of pizza is so romantic, it would have been inappropriate not to try and kiss.
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I WAS IN TIMES SQUARE WATCHING IT WITH OTHER IT-GETTERS…PICS COMING SOON…
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OMG BEST SHOW EVER!!!
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I was eating dinner during the name, and I kid you not, I almost choked because I was laughing so hard.
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I’ll be honest: I was so disappointed, especially compared to the pretty darn good 2004 and 2006 live election shows. Even though everything that was written was good, it seemed the written bits took up only a third of the show, and I didn’t think the Bradley Effect report was that funny. The rest was given to the two guests and the fairly blah commentary/improv between Jon and Stephen (even if they got out some clever if not laugh-out-loud hilarious jokes – especially Stephen). I think the stalling they ended up doing made them a little too nervous and threw off their timing, which is really unfortunate.I wanted something special. Colbert’s ignorant character interacting with the ignorant correspondent characters rather than Stewart the straight man. And even his interactions with Jon didn’t match the regular scripted tosses. I was so hopeful when Stephen started talking to Samantha Bee, especially since they haven’t performed together in so long, but then Jon cut them off. Get Stephen on with Rob Riggle and let them be all super-duper patriotic or something. Have him debate Jon Oliver and call him a limey or something. Turn Tyler Perry’s House of Daily Show with Larry Wilmore and The Cenac Agenda into a running joke/rivalry. I was also hoping John Hodgman would show up briefly (since he was backstage according to Twitter).
After rewatching it a few times, however, it’s growing on me. When I watched it live, I was expecting all-funny and to have to watch other coverage for the decision, and was blindsided by the projections coming early and the genuine sentiment that took over the show. I’m now waiting for the show to come up on iTunes.Despite all this I can’t wait for the regular shows tonight. Stephen will freak out, and I’m sure The Daily Show will go nuts with CNN’s holograms.
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I hear you viewdrix, but you’ve got to admit it’s hard to pull off a show that already has such high expectations. I personally think they could have just cut out the guest segments (or picked more charismatic guests) and given more face time to Jon and Stephen. I don’t know. They had to juggle time for their correspondents, guests and poll results. It’s a lot to cram into one hour with commercials on top of it. I think both of them might really shine this evening. I thought the show was entertaining, but found myself wanting more.
Nevertheless, seeing Jon announce Barack Obama as the next President of the United States and Stephen’s subtle tearing up made up for everything else.
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Of course. And hindsight is 20/20. But I agree that maybe the guests should have been scrapped (or turned into bits themselves, a la Jon and Dan Rather in 2006′s Midterm Midtacular), but then again the writers and correspondents have been vocal that they struggled with this, writing the show for weeks and weeks only to throw things out or finding out they’re not timely anymore, so maybe the writers wouldn’t have been able to fill the time anyway. Barry Julien (Colbert writer for those like me who didn’t know them by name. I’m ashamed.) was on CBC Radio in Canada earlier today, and said that the collective writers came up with jokes for just about every Senate win possibility – and if I recall, nothing about the Senate made it to air.
I just think both shows underestimated the potential of just letting the characters of Stephen and the correspondents go loose. Their jokes lacked a punch of timeliness because of the natural restrictions of writing so many jokes in advance, or that they of course couldn’t comment in depth on any breaking news out of a need to keep people updated. So make up for it with the characters. When Stephen’s improvisations were good, they were REALLY good, and I was hoping for more, and at a consistent, written level. They were able to mine enough out of Stephen reacting to the Republicans generally losing that they at least planned some of that in advance, and I especially liked Aasif Mandvhi’s updates from Al-Qaeda headquarters as well as Larry and Wyatt taking over the shows. All of those concepts didn’t need to rely on who won what specific state, but instead general jokes based off established character work. And I guess I wish the entire creative team had just decided weeks ago to focus on writing in that direction, working with the characters within those basic, near bullet-proof concept frameworks, rather than material like those abandoned Senate jokes.
Of course, anyone who knows me (and none of them are here) knows I’m just the kind of person to take fairly minor complaints and describe them in such detail, while just being unable to proportionally articulate the good, that it sounds like I hated it. I didn’t. But there were some flaws; again, Barry Julien was on CBC Radio, and even he referred to the “semi-awkward banter” between Jon and Stephen to stall for the official announcement. If they hadn’t had to semi-awkwardly stall, would it have helped the consistency of the show, and would I be complaining less? Probably, and that’s something they can’t help, and as many have noted, it was at least partially made up for by allowing Jon to make the call. And again, it’s easy to say “they should’ve done this, and not done that” after it’s all over and done with. But my admiration for the shows these guys do every day is not diminished at all. They’ll be incredible tonight, so long as they can overcome their hangovers. :) I just guess my expectations were in the wrong place.
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Calling Jon “Grandpa” reminded me of the Greatest Millennium bit they did.
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Anybody seen the iTunes version? They’ve done some post-production edits. So far, I’ve noticed they added some animals to “the world after George W. Bush” at the end. But they also cut off Stephen wiping away one of his tears to show the electoral results. :(
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I grasp that it’s a week later and everyone’s pretty much over this, but now that I’ve come across this post there’s something about it that ties in with something I noticed while watching the show.
In Stephen’s “juiced up” opening graphic the title featured the word “judgement” with the middle e (which is generally how the British spell it), and that’s how it’s spelled in the poll above. However, at the beginning of the post above (“Alternate Title”) it is spelled “judgment” (the common spelling in American English).
At first I was confused why Colbert’s one would offer this nod to the Brits, but then I grasped that in the spirit of truthiness, the graphic went with what felt right.
Still, it did distract me for a moment while I was watching the show the first time. Maybe over time Stephen will convince me that with two e’s is the U.S. way.
For those with some time to kill, I blathered on for an entire post of my own about this topic:
http://uselessdoug.blogspot.com/2008/11/alas-not-missing-thing.html
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