Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – May 3, 2009

Greetings, Zoners. It’s Sunday, and that means I’m caught up on my sleep, all my TV shows have been watched except for Thursday’s TCR (C’mon, self, what’s up with that? Get with the program…), and most importantly, I’m caught up on the news. It’s been a busy week in the Colbertosphere with the announcement that you can honor Stephen on his birthday with a donation to DonorsChoose.org through Stephen’s Great Birthday Give-Back page, which will hopefully raise a lot of money for some worthy projects. I think this is a fantastic way for Colbert Nation to mark the occasion of Stephen’s birthday, and I certainly plan on doing some donating. We also had a great interview with Stephen about his upcoming trip to the Persian Gulf courtesy of Military.com. And there was still a lot of buzz around the Internets over the Ohio State University study that surveyed how conservatives and liberals react to Stephen and his humor, which proved conclusively that some people are satire-challenged. Here are a few more highlights from the Colbert news, your zeitgeist for May 3rd.

Serious Fangirling

• wOw-Worthy Men: Liz Smith, Candice Bergen, and Cynthia McFadden’s Favorites – wowowow.com

  A trio of The Women on the Web had a conversation about some of their favorite men, and here’s how part of it went:

  • Candice: I have a crush on Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. But more Stephen Colbert because I think the guy has guts.
  • Liz: Yes, it’s really incredible what he gets away with, isn’t it?
  • Candice: Oh, I saw him at the Washington Press Corps dinner. What he took on… Oh, my God, my mouth was just opening. [...]
  • Liz: May I say a word? A P.S. to Candice’s love of Stephen Colbert? Now Candice, when we talk about him having guts and the things he gets away with, don’t you think it’s because his satire is on the right, and if he were doing a satire of somebody who was liberal, he couldn’t get away with it?

The Decemberists

• Decemberists Get the ‘Tweetment’ During ‘Colbert’ Appearance – Spinner.com

  A review of The Decemberists appearance on TCR, which notes that Colin Meloy and Chris Funk seemed a little nervous during the interview, and might have taken it too seriously. An update to the article reveals that @colinmeloy “updated his Twitter [Tuesday] to apologize for the band themselves not tweeting more from the show. ‘But there was a cell lockdown in the studio,’ he writes. ‘Think Stephen was afraid I’d mobilize my twitter legion.’”

Name That Disease

• How about ‘The Colbert Flu’? – Chicago Tribune

  “‘H1N1′ has no flair going for it as the name of a flu pandemic. It’s like a license plate or a robot monicker (R2D2, anyone?), doesn’t lend itself to acronyms, puns, headline shorthand or all the other things we hold dear in a name.

  “So why not name this disease after Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert? He’d love it. He’s always getting or trying to get his name slapped on things… I’m sure he’d love the ‘Colbert Flu.’”

  If the name is changed to Colbert Flu, maybe Prescott Pharmaceuticals would be inspired to come up with a treatment for it… Vaxaflu, perhaps? I have a feeling the side effects would be horrifying, and by horrifying I mean hilarious. Also, because this is how the world rolls these days, there’s already a Facebook group dedicated to this name change.

Tek Jansen

• Oni Press @ BookExpo America

  For all you librarians (hey!) and book industry types planning to attend BEA at the end of the month, Oni Press, the publishers of the Tek Jansen comics, will be exhibiting at BEA for the first time this year. Be sure to stop by and visit them at Booth 2771. (I have some great memories from attending BEA two years ago for Stephen’s appearance at the Saturday morning author breakfast, but sadly it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go this year.)

More “Things We Can Name After Stephen Colbert” news

• Conservation International’s Great Turtle Race 2009

  Remember Stephanie Colburtle the Turtle, who finished second in the Great Turtle Race of 2007? This year’s race, which just concluded, featured her cousin, Estéban (hah!). The first leatherback to cross the finish line was Backspacer, a turtle sponsored by Pearl Jam, but National Geographic had this to say about the final results:

  “Now that the turtles have completed the two-week Race, we can reveal just how far each turtle traveled. These turtles have put in incredible effort on their journeys, and all have covered thousands of kilometers… And the winner of the challenge is… Estéban! He swam an astounding 7,856 kilometers (4,881 miles) during the course of the race.” (I’m guessing he neglected to ask for directions.)

(h/t Jennie, TraceyUK, and Vigwig)