Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 13, 2010

Happy weekend, Zoners! I’m hiding out here in the Zeitgeist Central office to avoid the monsoon that’s been raging outside all day, catching up on some YouTube videos, watching the Mets spring training game from Florida (they won, yay), and generally being useless to anyone but myself. It’s been a good day. So now, in the effort to accomplish at least one useful thing today, I give you the latest Colbert news floating around the tubes of the Interweb.

Last gasp from Vancouver

• In what I think might be the very last bit of news to come out of Stephen’s visit to Vancouver, True/Slant included this little tidbit in a round-up of celebrity sightings around the city: “Stephen Colbert enjoyed moule frites at Chambar Restaurant and also dinner at Yaletown’s Blue Water Cafe (where fellow diners sang along with the comedian to O Canada).”

TCR guests

• As I mentioned in the last zeitgeist, Colbert Report chaplain and three-time guest Father James Martin has a new book out, just released this past Tuesday. A couple of recent articles about Father Jim both mention his position as Colbert Report chaplain. From Time magazine: “Father Jim Martin did not seek the title of Stephen Colbert’s TV priest. All he was doing was waiting in the wings for his third appearance on the comedian’s show… Then the priest suddenly heard his host direct the audience to welcome “The Colbert Report chaplain.” “I remember being surprised and delighted,” says Martin.”
• And Irish American newspaper The Irish Echo has a nice profile of Father Jim that relates these thoughts on Stephen: “‘He’s a great guy,’ Martin said of host Stephen Colbert. ‘He’s Catholic, so that helps us get along. He’s extremely bright,’ he added. ‘So I know his character is going to ask me good questions.’”
• Last Wednesday’s TCR guest Sean Carroll has a blog post up at Discover describing his experience at the show. I love his comment that the questions were more subtle and sophisticated than he was anticipating. I guess you don’t expect that when you’ve been warned that you’ll be doing the interview with an “idiot.”

Hulu

• For those of you, like me, who are missing the Report on Hulu, the future is not entirely bleak. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, commenting at a media conference, stated that both TCR and TDS could return to Hulu if their business model changes. “On the current economic model for Hulu there’s just not much in it for us to continue at this time.” (via BusinessWeek)

Viacom vs. Google

• CNET has an update on the Viacom vs. Google copyright fight, with the judge in the case ordering the two companies to figure out which information is too sensitive to release to the public within ten days. The rest of the documents in the case will be available to the public. This could get very interesting as some of the information that might become public is whether or not YouTube employees or Viacom employees uploaded any videos themselves.

Hosting the Oscars

• I know Stephen often gets mentioned as someone who would be a good choice to host an awards show, and here Salon.com makes a case for him to host the Oscars: “Who else could fill [Hugh] Jackman’s shoes? Dare I suggest Stephen Colbert? Check out his Christmas special for some serious song-and-dance-man cred. Unlike Jon Stewart, Colbert has the ability to pull off postmodern humor in such a way that an older audience doesn’t notice he’s being postmodern.”

Picture of the day

• From Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, a picture with a caption that’ll make you smile: an Army chaplain at a combat outpost in southern Afghanistan, surrounded by darkness, reading I Am America (And So Can You!) by the light of his red-filtered head lamp.

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