Episode 5051 (4/16/2009)
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EPISODE NUMBER: 5051 (April 16, 2009)
GUEST: Kanishk Tharoor, Doug Kmiec
SEGMENTS: Teabagging, National Organization for Colbert
VIDEOS: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
… And with that little note on Teabagging on the show tonight, let’s hope that will be the last time I hear that word for a loooong time.
I loved the National Organization for Colbert video. How many writers and actors did *you* recognize? There were so many fantastic lines, “A big, gay storm” … “And before long, the winds will be blowing each other” … “I am a New Jersey pastor whose church was turned into an Abercrombie and Fitch” … too many good ones to name them all. The whole sketch was friggin’ hysterical. The line about the Homo Storm had me laughing incredibly hard. I also loved the gentle rain on Six Pack Abs man. HA!
For those of you not following @stephenathome, you might want to start – the feed is starting to Livetwitter the show a bit. There were a few comments about the interview in tonight’s live twitter.
I thought the interview was very interesting – the question of Catholic support of Obama is one that has been very divisive in the Catholic community, at least the one here in Dallas. It was interesting to hear a Catholic say that well, maybe government should stay out of marriage after all.
What did you all think of the episode this evening?
- Yesterday was tax day and I am still recovering from a night of hard core teabagging with Michael Steel and Joe the plumber. My head is killing me and I can’t get this funny taste out of my mouth.
- Sexual insult does not begin to describe it. Especially when you search Google video.
- But frankly, other cultures have some traditions that are pretty f@#ked up.
- There is a new threat to marriage, and it won’t be solved by clearing out your web browser.
- I love that ad. It is like watching the 700 Club and the Weather Channel at the same time.
- Oh God, the Homo storm got me!
- I won’t let them make you retroactively gay, PePop.
- Paid for by generous donations from an anonymous group that may or may not be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
- It combines two of my favorite things – police brutality and trivia.
- The $64,000 Taser
- By then, we’ll probably know who is the next senator of Minnesota.
- Do they [poor people] vote against their interests in India? Because we’ve managed to get them to do that here.
- But people get married and make more babies so that there’s going to be a state in the future, that’s the whole idea of marriage is making the babies, you are a Catholic I thought. You know, we make babies *real* good, we Catholics.
- One thing I like about this, no Athiests can get married.
- I wrote my own vows, and I quote, na na na na na na.
- But if they *had* to, Catholic, right?
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16 Comments
April 16th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
What a great episode! I laughed out loud A LOT, which is something I really needed tonight. I also had fun watching for @StephenAtHome tweets during the course of the show.
The teabagging segment was the funniest one I’ve seen all week. I must be 12 years old though because I was giggling way too much!
I’ve been watching a lot of the “Gathering Storm” parodies on YouTube this week, so I was very happy to see TCR take on the stupid NOM ad too.
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April 17th, 2009 at 8:15 am
OK, I am SO naive – I did not know there were, um, multiple meanings of “teabagger.” Thanks, Stephen. Now I get the whole Ben-Jon exchange on TDS.
I voted for the Kmiec interview – the “pullout” character break alone has me giggling.
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April 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am
No worries. I didn’t know what teabagging meant either until TDS brought it up a few weeks ago.
You have no idea how many times I’ve had to hit Urban Dictionary since I began watching these shows:)
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April 17th, 2009 at 8:46 am
i want to join the National Organization for Colbert! Where do I sign?
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April 17th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I found the Kmiec interview quite interesting. He makes a good point about the difference between religious symbolism/tradition of sacraments such as marriage and the polical purpose of marriage as a contract for benefits, deeds, ownership, etc. I think what makes this such a divisive issue is that marriage can be seen by many as one or the other: sacrament or civil union when, in actuality, depending on your faith or belief system it does possess elements of both. Does that make sense? First Communion/Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation, etc. don’t really blur the lines between the religious and the civic.
I really enjoyed how Kmeic explained his main points and rolled with Stephen’s questions and interactions. Stephen is a master at blending both the main ideas and humor in a manner that is both insightful and pure entertainment!
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April 17th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Oh my God, I laughed SO hard at the “National Organization for Colbert” parody! I was dying throughout the whole thing. That “National Organization for Marriage” video is so creepy, but I figured that after the video of the actors AUDITIONING for it leaked, there was nothing more to do to make it funny. Silly me, not to realize that of course Stephen and his crew would parody it, and so triumphantly! Thank you, thank you!! A brilliant bit of work.
I felt badly for Stephen for the “chicken in every tandoor” gaffe at the end Kanishk Tharoor interview, but it was fine, overall. And the Kmeic interview was really interesting to me, because I’ve always found that government “sanction” of marriage an uneasy thing to reconcile to the separation of Church and State concept.
But I really, really, loved the “National Organization for Colbert” clip. SO good.
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April 17th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I had to use every bit of willpower not to search Google Video after he mentioned it on the show…
But other than that, good stuff all around. I was glad The Daily Show and The Colbert Report did segments on the “tea protests” and ultimately showed that their work on Comedy Central isn’t just about showing how stupid the common man is… but also how stupid the people responsible for putting the common man in line (i.e. journalists) happen to be as well.
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April 17th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I’m with ya on the term “teabagging”, DB! LOL!
I LOVED the National Organization for Colbert video! I laughed so hard at that and it got my vote. “Oh God! The homo storm got me!” ROFL! That was an excellent parody!
I also enjoyed both interviews. Mmmmm…. Korma….. I especially enjoyed the interview with Kmiec. He’s an interesting figure. He had been part of Mitt Romney’s campaign and ended up endorsing Obama after Romney dropped out. He was then denied communion by his parish priest. And I agree that marriage is only a religious sacrament if that sacrament is important to you. People get married at city hall by a judge all the time. That does not make their marriage less valid. I found the conversation fascinating and wished it could have gone on longer.
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April 17th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
As a Catholic, I was really intrigued by the interview and thus voted for that segment, but the NOM spoof came in as a close second…especially since Stephen made an appearance! I recognized Peter Grosz and the Guantanamo guy who used to live under Stephen’s desk, but I didn’t recognize the others. Maybe Meredith Scardino?
I know that I personally would not feel married unless I was married in the Church and thus I could easily go along with Mr. Kmeic’s suggestion that all couples, gay or straight, simply be seen as civic unions in the eyes of the government. However, Stephen brought up a good point as to how this could get out of hand and a union would leave room for interpretation, i.e. groups of people declaring themselves as a union. I have a feeling that I’m still missing a piece of the puzzle here, but it sounded good to me. I loved it when Mr. Kmeic one-upped Stephen by saying, “I have five kids, but this isn’t a competition.” Tee-hee.
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April 17th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
i married a muslim man in the catholic church, and it took a few hurdles to jump, to say the least, but we did it. being cradle catholic from the s. side of chicago, it is in my d.n.a.
i don’t know how the semantics will work out, but something ought to be done about civil unions-it has just become so politicized.
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April 17th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
unfortunately, i think stephen was onto something last night. i don’t think merely changing names will solve all the problems (but definitely a few)
from the orig NOM commercial, a problem would still be , for example, catholic adoption services would be required to serve gay couples and straight couples, despite their desire not to. changing what marriage is called won’t help, unless it also always catholic service providers to serve only catholics…
enough seriousness… funny show!!!
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April 17th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
The NOM commercial was good. It was fun to see the return of the ripped, bald black guy who was Stephen’s “look-alike.” And Peter Grosz getting tempted, haha! It’s hard not to recognize him when they’re playing Sonic commercials in every commercial break.
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April 17th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
that video was so amusing! I hadn’t seen the ad before, so I’m glad they provided context for those of who are a bit out of touch (says the person right in the middle of in Colbert’s demographic.)
the intro for some reason was amusing to me as well. I was totally expecting some person’s hand to reach into the frame and pat his back!
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April 17th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I first saw the NOM ad over at Crooks and Liars and laughed my head off when Damon Owens said “rainbow coalition”. Are they being ironic??
And I just found out that the NOM call their marriage campaign group “2 Million for Marriage” initiative…or 2M4M. And I’ll shut up about this topic now.
Loved the banter between Stephen and his two guests tonight, especially Doug Kmiec. I hope I get to read his book.
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April 18th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Apparently NOM thinks they got great PR from TCR doing a parody of them since they Stephen a letter that I read at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/17/anti-gay-group-sends-lett_n_188498.html
“I’ve always thought Stephen Colbert was a double-agent, pretending to pretend to be a conservative, to pull one over Hollywood. Now I’m sure,” said Maggie Gallagher, President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
“Thank you Stephen for playing our ad in full on national television–for free. HRC eat your heart out. Plus we all had a great chuckle, too!” said Brian Brown, NOM’s Executive Director. “Where can I make a donation to the National Organization for Colbert?”
People say that any PR is good PR but I don’t think that is true any more since did Jim Cramer get any benefit from his interview on TDS? Has Glenn Beck gotten any more credibility from the segments that have been on TCR?
It just goes to show that they are as naive about what think audience thinks of their commercial as their are about how Stephen was mocking them.
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April 18th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Thanks, blogged it!
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