Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.
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I was reading CNN not long ago when I noticed that one of the day’s top stories was “‘Cello scrotum’ exposed as a hoax“. Seriously? How can I read the words “cello scrotum” and NOT think of “Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.”, especially when last night’s show featured one?
There’s so much to love about “Cheating Death”, from the graphics to the mistimed sound effects to the utterly mind-bending array of side effects. I won’t link to them all here (you can find your favorite on Colbert Nation), but I just had to include what I think might be my favorite one.
Not only does that segment include the amusingly appropriate side effect of “testicular myopia”, it has the side effect that I think has made me laugh hardest of all: “involuntary Narnia adventures”. Win!
[P.S. On an OT, Narnia-related note, I recently read The Magician's Notebook: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller. If you, like me, read and enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Edda and/or the Wagnerian Ring legends, you should really read this book. It's a cool combination of literary criticism, memoir and mini-biography, and it looks at C.S. Lewis' writings from an adult, non-Christian perspective. Seriously interesting stuff.]
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9 Comments
January 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
One reason I love the Cheating Death segment is that Stephen rarely seems to be able to keep a straight face through it. “Bone sporking” had me rolling last night.
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January 28th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Heh, I’m still laughing at that one :)
Cello scrotum… I love it when CNN has the most bizarre headlines.
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January 28th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I saw this headline online today and thought the exact same thing. “Of course it’s a hoax! It sounds like a Prescott Pharma side effect!”
reCaptcha = attempting it
I am about to attempt to shovel my mom’s driveway out from 6 inches of heavy wet sticky snow
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January 29th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Spontaneous Gypsy Scarf is tied with Involuntary Narnia Adventures for my favorite Prescott side effect. And I’ve reserved The Magician’s Notebook at the library!
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January 29th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Ooh, you’ll have to tell me what you think of it. I really liked it; I felt like everything Miller mentioned (the His Dark Materials trilogy, Neil Gaiman, etc.) was something that I had read or enjoyed recently. I love reading books that make me excited about reading.
I’m re-reading Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran right now because I wanted to refresh my memory before starting on her new book, and that’s another that makes me incredibly grateful to be a bookworm. I heard Nafisi speak just last night, which was a treat; she’s quite passionate about the arts and their importance, and she had so many interesting things to say about understanding people’s cultures, etc. In between talking about watching Woody Allen or the Marx Brothers in post-revolution Iran and the way Hemingway and humanities and the like are undervalued in our schools, she mentioned Jon Stewart (called him her “guru”) and his latest “Gitmo” segment. I’m not a huge fan of those “Gitmo” bits, but it was so bizarrely wonderful to be sitting there in my favorite bookstore, listening to that brilliant woman imitating Jon imitating Elmo … A happy, happy occasion.
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January 29th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Ms I, thanks for the book recs. I don’t have much time for free reading during the semester (I teach college), but the Miller book sounds right up my alley. I love Pullman, Gaiman, Lewis, Tolkien…
BTW, how cool is it that Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) is directing Coraline, which is based on a Neil Gaiman story? I’m pretty psyched about that one.
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January 29th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I know the feeling. When my cases get busy, there’s barely time to eat and sleep (sometimes both fall by the wayside), so reading becomes an almost unthinkable luxury. I’m an addict, though; I get incredibly irritable and unfocused if I can’t read, so I definitely try to sneak it in whenever I can.
And you bet I’m looking forward to Coraline … all the more so because John Hodgman is one of the voice actors! :)
January 29th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hands down my favorite recurring segment. Great graphics, silly Stephen, frequent character breaks, and hilariously and gratuitously weird side effects.
I think my favorites have to be lungfire, eye curdling, and tracheal meerkat colonies.
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February 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
They totally talked about cello scrotum on the Feb. 1st issue of The Bugle (ep. 62)!!! I didn’t notice it was on Cheating Death as well, I guess ’cause that Bugle wasn’t out yet.
The Prescott side effects are always the best!
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