EPISODE NUMBER: 5121 (September 23, 2009)
GUESTS: A.J. Jacobs, Michael Moore
SEGMENTS: UN convening in NYC
VIDEOS: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
You know it’s going to be a fun episode when the show starts with a silly game, followed by a genuine smile. Stephen’s impression of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was so very adorable. Bring it on, Colbert, we can handle all the accents you can throw at us. Loved the “balloon” drop, and Stephen’s subsequent declaration that this balloon was his.
It’s so hard for me to take Michael Moore seriously after seeing “Team America: World Police.” Is that bad? That being said, I do want to go see his new movie, and will most probably do so as soon as it comes out.
And Tom DeLay sliding on his knees and biting his fist? Made me throw up a little in my own mouth.
A.J. Jacobs seems like a very fascinating person. I really enjoyed hearing the antecdotes from his books, and seeing Stephen’s reactions to his very honest answers. No Fact Zone is going to be talking to Jacobs later today, so if you have any questions for him, I’ll slip them into my Q&A with him.
What did you all think of the episode tonight? And is anyone else still scrubbing their eyes with bleach after the Tom DeLay segment?
- And Mahmoud Ahma-canIgetticketstotheLionKing-ejad wasn’t the only one desperate for a home.
- Nation, I say this is our chance to take these guys down. Let’s put these guys up in the finest hotels in the city and drain their national treasuries with mini-bar charges. Think about it – every $9 Toblerone is one less rocket going to Hezbollah.
- I’m sorry Osama, it was late, I was drunk, and I could not resist that $15 can of Pringles. It was the mini-size. How was I to know? I speak Iranian.
- Now sure, I may be the only one who got a giant gold balloon. But on average, we all have more balloon now. But this one’s mine.
- It’s kind of like a 2,000 layer lasagna where only a few of the layers are human feces. But overall, molto delizioso.
- No, you can’t regulate evil. But I think I’ve got a way to chop it up, rebundle it, and sell it to Goldman Sachs.
- What if the free market decides it doesn’t need a Michael Moore anymore? Who’s going to keep you in baseball caps?
- It is the most exciting marriage between politics and reality shows since Dick Cheney put the entire country on Big Brother.
- [Tom DeLay] looked so happy, you’d think he’d just been arrested on charges of corruption.
- Am I in your experiment, or are you in my experiment?
What good is a Senior Foreign Correspondent if she can’t correct your Italian – what Stephen said would be spelled “molto delizioso”.
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I started to type “[Jennie, help!]” but then forgot. Because it was 6a.
Thanks for the assist! I *knew* it would be handy to have an International correspondent eventually!
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Having seen this clip of Delay on DWtS, I’m surprised at how restrained TCR was in showing us so little. It’s really quite the… sorry. Words fail me.
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I did throw up a little in my mouth at the sight of Delay shaking his ass in brown polyester. But its so much like a train wreck you just can’t stop looking! I liked AJ Jacobs because I think everyone’s life is an experiment. In the grand scheme of things we really have very little control of everything. What was with the knife Stephen was brandishing in the open?
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He was playing fairly impressive mumblety-peg.
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I never choose the interview as my favorite segment, but I really enjoyed AJ Jacobs! These experiment ideas of his are fascinating to me. Now I’m gonna have to get his book.
PS: I never knew “delizioso” was spelled with a Z – this is what happens when you pick up Italian from movies; you never learn spelling. Thanks Jennie!
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I really wanted to see more with AJ Jacobs. It was a good interview, just too short. I enjoyed Stephen’s reactions to AJ’s comments and feel like he wanted to ask more, but there was a time constraint. I have read some of his books and interviews–very interesting!
Stephen’s Iranian and Italian accents were adorable! If I could, I would make them my ringtone! They just make me smile!
I was also EXTREMELY IMPRESSED with the toss in that they both held it together! Way to go guys! Based on content alone, I could tell it might be difficult for them and that either one of them could break at any second–kudos!
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Not a big Michael Moore fan. He honestly lost me with his opening gambit of “Capitalism is evil.” I’m surprised Stephen lets this guy on.
This episode wasn’t as good as Tues, but I got a great laugh at Stephen listing the “foreign leaders” and then slipping in “Kenya’s Barack Obama.” For that, U.N. gets my vote.
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Pass that eyeball bleach! Between TDS’s jab and TCR’s the image of Delay’s, um, “dancing” is now burned into my brain. *shudders*
The interview with Michael Moore was fun. He’s a good match for “Stephen”, but I really liked the interview with A.J. Jacobs. I’ve been meaning to pick up his books and just haven’t gotten around to it. One of my friends has read The Year of Living Biblically and loved it. That is so cool that you’re going to interview him later! I look forward to it.
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I really enjoyed the Jacobs interview. Here’s a question for him:
“In your experiments, please recount the most embarrassing and most surprising moments that occurred while living Biblicly and practicing radical honesty.”
p.s. Did Michael Moore seem a little nervous with Stephen?
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The opening was adorable. I love how rowdy the crowd was!
I dislike Michael Moore because he makes movies that I really want to watch and have important topics but then he constantly discredits himself by skewing facts to the point where he can’t be trusted. I still enjoyed the interview though and I loved it when Michael mentioned our elected representatives and Stephen said “I’ve met them”
I too would have loved to have seen more from Jacobs. I don’t have a specific question for you but I’d just love to hear about more of his experiments and more from what happened when he had to speak what was on his mind. (I think he deserves the big green room :)
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Really great episode, all around. I loved The Toss, “Stay pretty!” haha.
The audience last night was really awesome.
Jacobs topics are really interesting. I read his book the Know-It-All, and really liked that one. I’ll have to check out his other books as well. I loved when he spoke honestly and said he was disappointed he got the small green room. lol.
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“The first shall be last, and the last shall be first,” and someday perhaps, so shall it be with green rooms.
As quite usual with me, I really liked the interview segment of this episode. This interview with AJ Jacobs about his life experiments recorded in his book, The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment, was such good fun.
Stephen began this interview in his usual way with a witty and funny remark to get a laugh and ease the interview pleasantly forward. He did so here with the question, “Am I in your experiment or are you in my experiment?” However, it soon became obvious that Jacobs could provide a good part of the humor as well and Stephen let him.
It became apparent that the guest was going to follow a pattern of giving examples of his life experiments and then follow with a funny comment or remark about each. When it came to Jacobs’ experiments on living Biblically, Stephen’s lead about whether Jacobs coveted his neighbor’s ass or whether his neighbor had no ass to covet, Jacobs quipped, “No asses, no she-goats, no manservants.”
Jacobs’ example for the Old Testament Biblical directive to men not to shave their beards was followed by a funny comment about Jacobs’ finding his new bearded look a bit of a pain since he found himself held up at airports by airport security quite often. When Stephen asked about the required stoning of gays who were considered abominations in Biblical times, Jacobs answered that he used pebbles because that was the best he could do.
Washington’s 110 rules then were discussed with Stephen’s asking what kind of rules Washington could possibly have, save those about leeches and candle tallows. Jacobs then told the story of the 2nd rule, a man shouldn’t adjust his private parts in public, which continued with his saying, “And that’s where he got where he was.” When asked by Stephen if there was anything Jacobs had decided not to do because it was a bit too dangerous, Jacobs answered, “To try out all the positions of the Kama Sutra” which his wife said no to upon his request. This was followed by a quite funny short discussion by both about the “Inverted Mongoose” position – bad, since it was hard on the back. Ultimately, Jacobs suggested that all this experimentation was valuable to him, because as Atticus said to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, it is important for us all to walk in other people’s shoes.
But the best part of the interview for me was when Stephen asked Jacobs to act as if he were still practicing “Radical Honesty,” (telling people exactly what is on one’s mind) which Stephen said had landed him his own TV show. Jacobs said that behavior resulting from Radical Honesty produced disrespect and a breakdown in civility, but when egged on by Stephen to act so, with Stephen implying that he was tough and could take anything Jacobs would say to him, Jacobs confessed what made him a little sad was how he was placed before the show in this really small green room while Michael Moore got this massive … so, so funny at which point Stephen with a wide smile thanked him heartily for being on the show and presented Jacob’s book to the audience one more time. Just a great, fun ending to a truly enjoyable interview.
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Wow, what an insanely excited audience – they were certainly having a good time :) A good audience always brings a special energy to the show. Kudos to anyone who was there.
I loved the Jacobs interview best. He’s a great guest: relaxed, interesting, quick-witted, lots of funny moments. I laughed at the image of him throwing pebbles at adulterers & gay people to “stone” them. But I can imagine the radical honesty experiment could get you into serious trouble pretty fast.
I’ll be looking forward to the NFZ interview!
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Hmmm, Im really surprised at the 2 anti-michael moore comments here – I mean each to their own – but I am especially the one asking why stephen “lets him on the show.”
Havent people figured out yet that Stephen sympathises with Moore’s views? He has made quite a few veiled comments over the years about the problems (“evils”, if you will) within the capitalist system. I remember in particular one of the interviews he did with the editor of the Wall Street journal (cant remember his name, sorry)- he was purposely undermining the guy’s opinions re: capitalism is all good.
I dont think Jon is fond of Moore, but Stephen has never tried to ‘trip him up’ – you can usually tell when he sympathises with a guest and wants the guest to get their point across, because he pointedly tries to ask questions to draw them out rather than talking over the top of them (He did the same with Jacobs later on).
Anyway, I think the audience’s thunderous response to Moore’s presence on the show reflects what the majority of the Colbert audience thinks of Moore and his ideas.
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well, i mean, there are some pretty legit criticisms of the capitalist system, many of which jon and stephen covered early this year and late last year. maybe my memory is bad but i dont think either jon or stephen have outright declared capitalism evil as a whole, as moore does. i guess it’s a matter of degree.
but you’re right that stephen did go easy on him, and the point is taken about the audience applause. i will say though, that the opinions of the audience and stephen don’t always sync up.
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I responded to you below – I dont know how it ended up there rather than here. Sorry!!!
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awww, I wish I’d had a chance to watch earlier (a very run-around day today) because I would have asked Jacobs how he gets inspiration for each individual experiment. I like running experiments on myself, and when I think of something, it usually comes to me as a fully-formed idea, and I can immediately move to getting any instructional books I might need. I can’t wait to see how the NFZ interview went! :D
anyway, that was a really fun interview. I loved the pumped-up audience! I’m not a huge fan of Michael Moore, although the only film of his I’ve seen is Fahrenheit 9/11, and I hardly remember anything about it. it’s hyperbole to call capitalism evil, and it doesn’t make me want to see this new film.
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This is a reply to the person that replied to me – sorry I posted in the wrong place!
It is a matter of degree, which is why I dont understand your visceral reaction against him (or that of other posters here who are quick to condemn a movie they havent seen/dont remember on the basis of one line he uttered).
I think Moore makes it pretty clear in his interviews that he isnt against people making money for their hard work – what he is against is people making money off other people’s losses, which is what the big banks have done with the support of the US government.
They got a bailout to pay off their debts, but none of the benefits of that bailout were passed onto the people. Instead they continued to penalise people for their debts – home foreclosures continued and the like.
The banks didnt HAVE to do that. In most other countries (including mine) the banks gave people with mortgages a one year amnesty and allowed them to restructure their loans, so that they wouldnt be thrown onto the street. Why didnt it happen in the US? US style capitalism, as it has been functioning in recent history, is ‘evil’ when you compare it to the behaviour of banks in other countries – its completely barbaric to throw people out onto the streets – if the government in other 1st world countries allowed that to happen, people would riot, and rightly so.
Often I think US citizens tend to say they oppose Moore because it somehow makes you look more moderate. True, his style of reporting is ‘gonzo journalism’, but in reality, if you watch his previous docos and look at what has unfolded – he is spot on in his analysis.
Im saying this as someone who lived in the US and other countries and have seen the difference. Maybe from the inside you guys think things arent as bad as he says, but those of us who have experienced ‘both worlds’ think his analysis is pretty spot on.
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I asked for the mods to delete this comment so I could post it in response to the post I intended to – but the site wont let me post it there.
So Mods, please dont delete this post anymore. I have told mrtigger where the response is posted.
Thanks!
Read more: http://www.nofactzone.net/?p=17215&cpage=1#comment-345753#ixzz0S5uawiPV
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“It’s so hard for me to take Michael Moore seriously after seeing “Team America: World Police.” Is that bad?”
Not at all. He did regain some credibility for me when he did “Sicko”, but if one of the lines in his new movie is “Capitalism is evil,” then he’s going to have a hard time regaining my sympathy. Seriously, what happened to the Moore of old, of “Roger and Me”? That was such a simple but beautiful movie.
I will say he was good match for Stephen though. I wish there were a few more guests like that.
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