Four Horsemen of the Apopcalypse – Pop culture references in The Colbert Report: May 4-7, 2009

Welcome to No Fact Zone’s weekly roundup of cultural references on The Colbert Report. From Darcy to Dangermouse, String Theory to Shakespeare, we’ve got the keys to this week’s obscure, oddball, and occasionally obscene cultural shout-outs (hey!).

Hey Zoners!  What a fun week of shows.  I love it when Stephen breaks out the prayeraphanalia. This weeks apopcalyptic tidbits include backmasking Beatles, Supreme Court follies, and linguistic myths. Be sure to post your favorite bits in the comments.  Goo goo g’joob!

Monday: Code Word Empathy

“We already have a justice who identifies with the feelings thoughts and attitudes of another”

Pictured are U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas & Antonin Scalia.  Since his controversial confirmation in 1991, Justice Thomas has sometimes been criticized for failing to develop an independent voice in the Court, having sided with Scalia on 85-90% of decisions (though others dispute these estimates, as well as their meaning).  It’s no big thing, they’re just man-friends.

“Listen to this clue I got playing Obama’s empathy speech backwards: ‘Justice John Paul Stevens is the Walrus’.  No wonder most of the court believes that happiness is a warm gun.”

Upon hearing that a teacher at his former school was assigning students to decipher the meanings of Beatles songs, John Lennon wrote “I am the Walrus”, a song of inscrutable nonsense lyrics that sent fans into a frenzy of speculation and analysis (the White Album song “Glass Onion” refers to the tizzy with the lines, “Here’s another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul”).  Inevitably, the song became linked to the Paul is Dead rumor (previously featured on the Apopcalypse) – the walrus supposedly being symbolic of death – which was fueled in part by fans’ claims of messages that can be heard when certain songs are played backwards (such as “turn me on, dead man” in “Revolution 9” – see  details & soundclips of backmasked lyrics).  And though the walrus is not a mollusk, I can’t pass up the opportunity to link to Stephen as George Harrison, singing the Squiddy song (at 3:45).

Tuesday:  Picking a New Supreme Court Justice – Cliff Sloan

“The gold standard of course was the vicious nomination battle over Robert Bork, which included a fiery speech by Ted Kennedy, an anti-Bork commercial narrated by Gregory Peck, and this scathing editorial…. The poor guy never knew what borked him.”

Not only did it set the gold standard for slowly destroying public servants in the media, but Robert Bork’s contentious and ultimately failed 1987 nomination to the Court by President Reagan spawned a new verb:  In 2002, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term “Bork” to refer to opponents’ evisceration of nominees to prevent them from taking public office.  The Swedish Chef’s scathing editorial comes to us courtesy of The Muppet Show, a Jim Henson  production aired from 1976-1981, and one of my Favorite TV Shows of All Time. Ma na ma na!

Wednesday: Colbert-Branson Duel

“You know who’s a real rebel billionaire? Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. That’s a guy who really makes his own rules.  And thanks to those rules, Zimbabwe has 231 million percent inflation.  So anyone in the country who can buy bread is a billionaire. Or as the call them in Zimbabwe, breadinaires.”

We’ve featured the economic crisis in Zimbabwe previously on the Apopcalypse (Thursday 3/12, Simon Johnson interview), including a dramatic photo essay illustrating the armloads of bank notes required to buy a loaf of bread.  As a result of continued spiraling hyperinflation, the country has effectively undergone complete dollarization, with domestic business transactions taking place in currencies other than the Zimbabwean dollar.

Thursday:  Intro & Smokin’ Pole

“Remember, when you hear the secret word, scream real loud. Tonight’s secret word – ssssh.”

Aired from 1986-1990, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was a live action children’s TV program starring Paul Reubens, based on characters from Reubens’ earlier comedy work and featured in the film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (directed by Tim Burton).  Reubens’ character Pee-Wee was a hyperkinetic bow-tied and besuited man-child who lived in a playhouse populated by puppets, talking furniture, and pop art.  Among the recurring elements was the Secret Word revealed at the beginning of each show -  Pee-Wee instructed children to “scream real loud” every time they heard it (naturally the secret word was used frequently).  A real delight of intelligent, funny children’s programming.

“Well, Inuit, I hope you have a hundred words for surrender, because we are going to bring the heat.”

Have you ever heard that Eskimos have over a hundred words for snow, while English has only one?  Neat idea, except that it’s completely untrue on both counts (the Inuit language has far fewer than claimed, and English has many more than just one).  A case of one small bit of evidence (early lingustic studies identifying four Inuit terms for snow) becoming detached from the source, used to support a theoretical viewpoint (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language determines thought), and through sheer ubiquity, becoming “common knowledge”.  Here’s a satirical list of supposed Inuit words for snow and their translations.  Interested in more fun facts about language and its origins?  Go read friend of the show Steven Pinker‘s fabulously funny and entertaining book The Language Instinct.  Really.  Do it.  You can thank me later.