No Fact Zone

Comments

1. cordgrass

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   That Glenn Beck thing was brilliant.

   And the purple tie was lovely. :)

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2. Roland

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   I wish colbert had friday shows… I can’t wait to see the new “Who’s not honoring me now” segment. Him vs. Obama regarding Nobel Peace Prize should be very funny.

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3. Bri

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   While I laughed out loud at the Beck thing, I honestly enjoyed Stephen using Scooby Doo as a way to gauge things.

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4. Cole

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   I think the Glen Beck thing was brilliant. All the Glen Beck segments make me happy. Since Glenn came on the air I’ve been saying “Glenn Beck is exactly like Stephen Colbert, except Stephen Colbert is kidding.” And last night that’s basically what Stephen said. woot.

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5. Gaia Faye

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   The whole “love and fear” thing reminded me of Donnie Darko. But yeah, the comparison of Stephen and Glenn Beck illustrates pretty well how seriously that guy should be taken.

   Stephen and purple ties are like my OTP.

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6. whatsername

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   I think the Glenn Beck segment was one of Stephen’s best bits of satire — right up there with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

   Next year when we vote for the top 10 shows/segments, etc., this one’s getting my vote.

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   • cordgrass

     

     said on 9th October: Reply

     It was something. I mean part of it was him simply being the right person at the right time, but he ran with it, it was brilliant.

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7. unanimousvote

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   Too hard to vote today!
   What a great show ~ man o man !!

   laughed with
   U

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8. lockhart43

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   Ohhhhh how I loved this episode! First off: Purple Tie + Those Cuffs + That Shirt = Fan-freaking-tastic. And DB, I am completely in love with his hair right now; I’m so glad you mentioned it! :D

   By far, my favorite part of the ep was the Glen Beck segment; it was perfect in every way and I truly loved the point Stephen was making. “It’s like looking into a mirror after you’ve done a ton of coke off of it” – HAHAHA!
   Is it 11:30 PM Monday night yet?

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9. blt

   

   said on 9th October: Reply

   There is something strangely adorable about the way Stephen says “YOU WHORE(S)!” I don’t read Glamour magazine, but whenever I see it at the checkout stand at the market, the first thing that comes to mind now is Stephen.

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   • cordgrass

     

     said on 9th October: Reply

     I think I would have picked a slightly different adjective than “adorable” but I am in agreement that it is most enjoyable.

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10. luvtcr

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    Comedy as news…news as comedy!!! Love how it was all turned on its side last night. Perfect, just perfect. The mash-up was both funny-hilarious (Stephen) and funny-sad/strange (Beck).

    As a former camp counselor and life guard, I encourage all of you to find buddies this weekend so we can find our way back to TCR on Monday!!!

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11. vigwig

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    Oh my, the Glenn Beck piece, just a brilliant skewering. I would have liked to hear more of No Impact Man’s experiences though.

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12. Michele

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    The Glenn Beck bit was brilliant! :-) I also got a chuckle out of his new Iranian intern.

    Oh and could someone explain the fascination with his ties to me? No idea there.

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    • unanimousvote

      

      said on 9th October: Reply

      Some of us just enjoy admiring the man statements he makes with that bit of formal fabric that goes with a suit. Either the nice one from last night is new or he hasn’t worn it in a long time. We also enjoy shirts that require cuff-links every once in a while. His wardrobe is very limited and I like the dark gray suits best.

      textile
      U

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    • lockhart43

      

      said on 9th October: Reply

      For me, it’s basically that I truly appreciate a guy who knows how to dress, and who has a sense of style. And while I’ve read in article interviews that Stephen truly does not care about his appearance or what he wears (which I love), he does have a sense of style and looks damn fine in a suit :D. Which would partly be why I anticipate every TCR ep – whoever works in TCR’s wardrobe department truly knows what they are doing :).
      So whenever he wears a nice tie that complements his eyes or wears a nice, crisp dress shirt with French cuffs, I get excited ha.

      That’s my part of it, anyway. :D

      Oh, and I loved the Iranian intern bit too! The awkward silence at the beginning as he drops his coffee cup and asks for a towel was quite hilarious.

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      • Mel

        

        said on 21st October: Reply

        The awkward silence was just that, actually. I was at that taping, and Stephen had already screwed up earlier in taping the same segment of the show. Because of the fluid nature of the bit, they were unable to just start taping in the middle and he was unable to recover, and they had to go back to the opening titles. I think we all bought the coffee cup thing, at least primarily. He even thanked us after the show: “Thanks for believing, if only for a moment, that the coffee cup was an accident.” *snort* He’s LOVELY.

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        • lockhart43

          

          said on 21st October: Reply

          D’aww…*sigh* he’s fantastic. The coffee cup thing was very convincing, I thought. The “Oh s#!t” certainly helped make it “accidental,” and his deer-in-headlights look when he looked up from his desk with the towel was great hahaha. The first bit of it was just so awkward because the whole audience was silent and I had no idea what was going on lol ;)

          Thanks for sharing that – and lucky you for being at the taping!

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    • Michele

      

      said on 9th October: Reply

      Ok, thanks guys! :-) That’s one of the things about this fandom I’ve always wondered about. I usually think he’s well-dressed but I don’t typically pay much attention to his tie or suit specifically.

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      • lockhart43

        

        said on 9th October: Reply

        You’re welcome!
        Happy to give you an insight into my love for All Things Stephen, which just so happens to include his wardrobe. hahaha :)

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13. SazzrahUK

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    Wow, great show – I was smirking the whole way through. Kind of wish the interview was a bit longer. Loved the snippet of Stephen wearing the Sarah Palin glasses in the Glenn Beck montage, oh I miss those glasses.

    Off Topic: Anyone know why colbertnation is suddenly blocking the UK from watching videos again?? hopefully it means it’s going to be shown on TV here.

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14. rose

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    Sorry, I didn’t really get that Glenn Beck segment.

    When I first saw Glenn Beck I thought that he had basically lifted the entire premise for his show straight from TCR – except that he had decided to play it straight (sort of). So it was like Beck imitating “Stephen” who was a parody of O’Reilly.

    I sort of get that Glenn’s aim is apparently some kind of “edutainment” (???) and Stephen’s aim is satire and nothing more. However, I am still confused.

    Does Stephen satirise Glenn Beck because he thinks Glenn is a harmful conservative demagogue? No doubt some of the people who watch Glenn Beck regard Stephen as a liberal demagogue. I don’t know.

    Surely they are both just a couple of “rodeo clowns” on T.V because they love their pay-checks (and “the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd”.)

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    • DB

      

      said on 10th October: Reply

      I think the biggest difference is that Stephen Colbert is on Comedy Central and is a comedian first and foremost. Glenn Beck, on the other hand, is on a news network, the Fox News network, to be specific, and claims to be a show about “enlightenment” and facts.

      Yes, both have a focus on entertainment. And yes, obviously both like the paycheck, along with the fame, I’m sure. But Glenn Beck asserts that his bottom line is to inform his readers. Stephen, on the other hands, mocks the misinformation that Glenn Beck and other conservative pundits spew as fact.

      Also, Stephen’s character, while starting out as a Rush Limbaugh/Bill O’Reilly satire, has evolved into more of the over-the-top emotional antics that Glenn Beck is famous for.

      The reason that the video had such impact on the audience is that Stephen and Glenn Beck were saying essentially the *exact same thing*, except Glenn Beck was serious. And Stephen had made jokes about the actions months, and sometimes even years before Glenn Beck approached the same subject with the same angle. Except Glenn Beck was serious that we should be scared of China, and that he was bawling because he loves his country.

      And the part that is the most terrifying of all is that there are a lot of people out there that respect and believe Glenn Beck and his views. So when he says that we should be afraid of China, or that we should charge the nation’s capital with teabags on our hats with signs that scream “Keep Government Out Of Our Medicare” on 9/12, or that Barack Obama has a deep-seated hatred of white people, his viewers believe him.

      Now, those of us on the other side of the political spectrum don’t necessarily agree with his views. And on top of that, his play of his viewer’s emotions is one of the reasons that this nation is so torn in two. It started in the days of Clinton, and Bush ripped it apart. This wound is still very fresh for the liberals in the world, and every word that comes out of Beck’s mouth is pouring salt in those wounds.

      One of the ways that we manage that pain is that we laugh at it. We point out the issues which we find idiotic, and laugh at them for the silliness that they are. That is why the video was so funny. And why it was such a big deal – it’s rare that someone with as much status as Glenn Beck is hit so cleanly.

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      • Rose

        

        said on 6th November: Reply

        Thanks DB for that thoughtful reply.

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15. Splendiferous_Zeppelin

    

    said on 9th October: Reply

    The Beck segment was jaw-dropping. Ridiculous, I know, but I had never really thought of Beck’s similarities to Stephen. But now, looking back, Stephen is Beck. He prefigured Beck, to the point where it’s actually kind of creepy. Few things are as unnerving as satire turning into reality…

    I challenge someone out there to watch as many episodes of Beck as possible and as many episodes of the Colbert Report as possible, and then write a paper comparing and contrasting the two. How wonderfully surreal.

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    • Arianne

      

      said on 10th October: Reply

      That’s actually a really good idea for the extended essay I have to write next year in order to get my IB diploma. Thanks!

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      • lockhart43

        

        said on 10th October: Reply

        Arianne, that would be such a great paper – I hope you get to write it! My only advice to you is to watch Beck in shifts – you might get a headache listening to him in one sitting. LOL

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16. Spoon at a Spork Fight

    

    said on 11th October: Reply

    This episode was my first time seeing a taping of TCR and it was such a good one! The best thing about the taping was seeing Stephen mouth along words and laugh to the Glenn Beck/Stephen montage, including silent, fake sobbing at the crying bits and quite a few actual genuine smiles and laughs at both himself and Glenn (while still looking into the prompter and trying to stay in character). It was hilarious and thrilling to see in person. I started this week at a town hall on healthcare reform with quite a few shouting Tea Party supporters—who, while civil in one-on-one conversation, tended to go full-Beck in a group and/or when given a microphone—so a satirical Beck deconstruction seemed timely and necessary.

    Stephen did flub a word during the first try at taping (saying the Iranian scientist had gone “missing-a”) and had to start over from the intro: “This is the first time I’ve ever made a mistake—you are now all collector’s items.” Then, at the end of the taping he thanked us for really believing that he had dropped the mug accidentally during the Iranian Kidnapped Scientist Intern bit.

    The nicest surprise about going to see a TCR taping was just how happy and gracious the TCR crew was. The asst. audience coordinator who greeted everyone in line was sweet and professional; it was cool to hear about the incredible shifts the crew worked while prepping the Iraq shows this summer (go crew!). Pete Dominic did a great warm up of the audience and showed a lot of love to international Colbert fans (several groups of fans had airplane luggage with them in line—dedication!) despite a Canadian fan’s reluctance to praise his healthcare system and two other Aussie audience members’ exchange of the expected cheer (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! etc.).

    And just to end at the beginning, while I was waiting in line I enjoyed searching for and reading graffiti from Colbert fans of yore (and earlier this year) written on the wall of the studio. It even kind of seems appropriate that as of 10/8/09 the highest up on the wall and biggest (2 inches tall and white on brick red) line of graffiti read: “Keep [edited for family-friendliness]-ing that chicken!” That’s Our Nation. ☺

    And thank you @ColbertTix for the Twitter alert! I wouldn’t have been able to go without you.

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    • DB

      

      said on 11th October: Reply

      You can thank our Completist Tiger for the @colberttix catch – she does about 95% of the posts there.

      And thanks so much for the report! I love to read taping reports from Zoners. They always have such a unique perspective on things.

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    • ColbertGirl27

      

      said on 11th October: Reply

      Thanks for the report and congrats on finally making it to a taping. I’m very impressed by the fans who were willing to lug their luggage to the studio. I hope the other Zoners catch your post!

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