‘The Colbert Effect’ in the Blogosphere

A little round up of what’s been in the blogs, large and small, about Stephen Colbert taking his show on the road in Iraq this past week. There have been a lot of posts about ‘Operation Iraqi Stephen’ this week, but I’m only going to mention those with new info or an interesting observation and am certainly not going to link to anyone suffering broken funny bones or lack Vitamin Get-It.

Enjoy Comedy Central’s weekly round-up of ‘The Colbert Report’ from Iraq and then read on past the break for our round-up of the blogoshpere.

Colbert boosts moral and motivation

• The Colbert Effect and Troop Morale – New York Times’ Room for Debate:
  

  Maintaining good troop morale is essential to a successful military mission. What does it take to do that, especially in the face of multiple deployments?

  We asked current and former service members, a historian and the spouse of an Army officer for their thoughts.
  …

  Build Morale Back Home
  Jim Murphy and Bill Murphy Jr. [former Marine Corp officer and Army Reserve officer - Ed.]

  …

  The U.S.O. is a fantastic organization with a storied history, but Mr. Colbert’s effort this week stood apart, because it was as much about boosting the morale of civilians back home as it was about boosting the morale of the troops. Getting American civilians to notice and care about the war again can’t help but have an impact on the motivation of the 130,000 or so soldiers we still have on the ground. Not to get all Matthew-Broderick-in-“Election” here, but there is an important difference between morale and motivation.

  …

  But what Mr. Colbert did was important. He tried to affect civilian morale, and he did it in an honest way that the troops themselves could see. And that’s pretty motivating.

  [Click here and read the rest of the NYT blog post - It's very interesting!!]

Stephen Colbert v Bob Hope
The New York Times provides some Bob Hope U.S.O. footage and a Vietnam veteran gives his opinion about who’s funnier. I’m just sayin’.

• The U.S.O.’s New Funnyman – New York Times’ Art Beat: Check out the Bob Hope compilation video they provided for comparison.
  
• Stephen Colbert On the Road in Iraq – Joe Sharkey At Large: “I thought Stephen Colbert and his crew, aided by the USO, pulled off an astonishing feat doing a week of four very funny “Colbert Report” shows for the troops in Iraq. … Nice work all around, and the shows were obviously wildly popular with the troops. … Here I gotta put in my two cents, as they used to say back when Bob Hope was considered funny (which was roughly during the Korean War).”

Miscellaneous info and opinionA Fandom flamed, god-less fashionistas, and a songstress from South Dakota’s North Korea.

• Colbert’s USO Ascension – The Ideal Reader: “If you didn’t watch this week, you missed out on history. You missed out on Sarah Palin and George W. Bush appearing on THE COLBERT REPORT, for God’s sake. And you missed out witnessing the power that comedy can birth, and the effectiveness that culture can have on our society. In a time of international conflict and war, it wasn’t just what the troops needed. It’s what WE at home needed as well. It was television at its finest.”
• In defense of camouflage – SF Gate: “Colbert, 45, is a child of the late 1970s and early ’80s, when seminal punkers the Clash introduced mainstream audiences to camo as both a fashion and a political statement. Wearing camo is a sign of ain’t-gonna-take-it-from-the-Man rebellion. Jamaican reggae artists – a prime source of later Clash material – wore camo before Colbert learned his multiplication tables, and Public Enemy sported it when Colbert became an adult.”
• Morast: Fargo South alum sings with Stephen Colbert – InForum [Ed: definite it-getters]: “Stephen Colbert comes off as the kind of guy who doesn’t need help with anything. … That’s why it’s a bit surprising that the satirist needed help singing the national anthem during his recent trip to Iraq. But what’s cool about the potentially humbling situation is that the person picked to harmonize with Colbert was Adrienn Falk, a 2000 graduate of Fargo South High School.”