Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 3, 2010

Hey, gang! I hope everyone is having a great week-after-the-Olympics. I’m feeling a little lost without the Olympics to watch, but with The Pluto Files and the final episode of Faces of America both airing this week, it’s not like there’s nothing good on TV. Just as there’s been a wealth of Colbert goodness on TV, we’ve got plenty happening in the news this week, too. Today’s zeitgeist includes a few last gasps from Vancouver and the Olympics, a look at the late night landscape now that The Guy Who Used to Host The Tonight Show is back at The Tonight Show, and a bridge I’d like to sell you. It’s in Hungary. Read on!

Vancouverage: the final word, maybe

• NBC’s Olympics website posted a poll to vote for the favorite personality of the Games. I call your attention to #10: Stephen Colbert, speed skating: “The ‘Assistant Sports Psychologist’ of the U.S. speed skating team, Colbert was everywhere during his run in Vancouver. He rode a moose. He climbed into a fire. He dressed up as a Canadian Mountie. And above all else, he introduced an unexpected and entertaining wild card onto the landscape of the Olympic Winter Games.” (I’d tell you all to go vote for him because he’s only at fourth place, but it looks like the voting might have closed. Boo.)
• Mediabistro’s TVNewser has posted their choices for the top 10 images from the Winter Olympics coverage. They’re not posted in any particular order, but halfway down in the right column, you’ll see a familiar Canadian Mountie sitting in front of a stuffed moose in NBC’s studios.
• NESN.com offers its list of Top 10 lessons to take away from the Vancouver Games. Lesson #10: Having fun has its rewards – “Heckling may not have been invented in the USA, but Americans perfected it. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, a right-wing parody of a TV show airing on Comedy Central, made waves for his lambasting of Canadians as ‘syrup suckers’ and ‘ice holes.’ The attention he and his show brought to the Games, however, certainly assuaged any hurt feelings Canadians might have had.”
• In a more somber reflection on the Olympics, The Washington Post looks at the troubles confronting US Speedskating as they face a very uncertain financial future with the end of the Colbert Nation sponsorship. Sports Illustrated is featuring a similar story focusing on the long-track speedskaters.

Hungarian bridge

• Remember the bridge in Hungary that Stephen tried to have named after himself? The bridge shows up on Google Maps with the legend “Colbert híd,” which translates to “Colbert Bridge” according to a quick Hungarian-to-English online dictionary search. As the article explains, the name is from user-contributed information, and isn’t officially part of Google Maps. But if you want a giggle, go over to Google Maps and do a search on “Megyeri Bridge, Budapest, Hungary.”

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up

• …and you can tell because items like this are starting to show up. IrishCentral.com has published their list of the Top 10 funniest Irish celebrities for St. Patrick’s Day, and look who’s at number 1: Stephen Tyrone Colbert. “Subtle, understated, brilliant. Just came back from a gig at the Vancouver Olympics where he killed them with an Irish stand up routine at the Irish House. Despite the humor, takes his Irish heritage seriously.” Among the other Irish folks he beat out for the honor of being #1: Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and Denis Leary.

Late night TV

• With Jay Leno returning to The Tonight Show this week, it raises the question of whether the late night talk show format is still relevant. Two TV media experts disagree on the answer, but both conclude that future success might depend on becoming more “edgy and controversial” like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. (Via the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star)

Random acts of news

• MTV’s Splash Page has an interview with Mad Men star Jon Hamm discussing the possibility of playing various superheroes in upcoming films. But Hamm has his own suggestion for casting the role of Captain America: “I think that Captain America should be played by Stephen Colbert,” he laughed. “I think that would be perfect.”
• Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune airs one of his pet TV peeves: the wild applause from studio audiences that suck up valuable air time. He accuses Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert specifically of allowing all that yelling and screaming to go on and on and on, to the detriment of the show. You’ll want to read the comments at the end of the column for a response from DB about the genuine enthusiasm of TCR audiences.
• I’m going to indulge myself for a minute here and point out a nice article in THE USA Today on Father James Martin, S.J., the official Colbert Report chaplain and one of my favorite TCR guests. He has a new book coming out next week, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything: the Spirituality of Real Life. The article includes a sidebar on Father Jim’s three appearances on TCR, and quotes Stephen as saying, “Jim is a Jesuit priest and a funny guy. I’m grateful to know both of him.” (Pardon me for a sec while I go add this book to my reading list…)

Gratuitous name dropping

• Economic news out of South Carolina: a state politician recently introduced legislation that would put South Carolina back on the gold standard, replacing U.S. dollars with gold and silver coins. The reaction? “I’m thinking of a Stephen Colbert half dollar, aren’t you?” (Via Bankrate.com)

(h/t DB, Ms I, Jennie, and Katt)