EPISODE NUMBER: 6059 (April 28, 2010)
GUESTS: Gregg Easterbrook
SEGMENTS: Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA; Difference Makers
VIDEOS: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Cheating Death segments? They never fail to produce a hearty laugh for me. And the estrogen on estrogen Vaxa-Lact made me giggle quite heartily. The small character break was well contained, by Cheating Death standards, but it was quite amusing nonetheless. And while I was a bit confused about the Minotaur appearance when it came on last night, the mention on tonight’s show made the confusion worth it for the setup. Excellent use of the callback, writers! Also, a Jewish Indian spirit guide was almost as mind bending as the Vaxa-Tab trip itself. [Ed. Note: According to the Huffington Post, the Indian was played by Eugene Mirman]
In case you weren’t keeping count, 39 birds were flipped during today’s “Difference Makers” segment. The signoff at the end of “we salute you right back” was just perfect. It was good that the police officer was a good sport about things with his interview. The editing of this clip, and the whacked out ramblings of Robert Ekas, really added to the buffoonery of the difference maker.
It’s rare that Stephen pretty much starts out an interview with genuinely asking “What the hell are you thinking?” It’s very obvious that Stephen feels passionately about the space program, and brought Neil DeGrasse Tyson on recently to discuss the harm in discontinuing the manned space program. To hear the view of someone who was supporting the cancellation was quite interesting, especially in watching Stephen’s response. It was also very entertaining to hear the audience turn on Easterbrook when he made the Islamic turtle comment. Easterbrook had a lot of what sounded like canned responses about the asteroids, but luckily for the audience, Stephen had quick and funny responses to all of them.
What did you enjoy most about tonight’s show? Share it in the comments!
- And that’s good news because Rhode Island is the smallest state.
- Some doctors use a tongue depressor. I prefer to break down a tongue’s confidence. Hey tongue, better lose some weight or you’re going to die alone.
- Now you can keep your mouth from smelling like an ashtray while sucking on the contents of an ashtray.
- But come on – the teardrop logos are obviously pointing in opposite directions.
- That’s why in my house, we remove the crazy straw from every bottle of Hannah Montana Razzleberry Bleach.
- Flinstone’s Chewable Vita-MENS, not to be confused with Flinstone’s Chewable Vitamins, which are good for kids and their company has lawyers. Side effects: Pubic thatching, bronchial cartwheels, and insomnia with Dave Attel.
- Yes, spreading breast milk on your face won’t cause issues. Well, not those issues.
- Introducing Vaxalact, a powerful blend of Estrogen and more Estrogen, that fights acne by helping you to grow breasts. Often on your chest. Soon the only bulbous red tipped mounds on your head will be nipples. And ladies, don’t worry if you get them before a big date. The fellas will enjoy the challenge of trying to reach the elusive Fifth Base. Side effects: Shingleberries, skeletal griffining and vagina monologues.
- Now we can rest easy knowing that Pepop is tripping his balls off.
- Vax-A-Tab – made from a potent combination of other Prescott drugs rejected by the FDA. Let’s take a magic carpet ride. Wow, suddenly fighting that minotaur last night makes perfect sense. Side effects – eraser head, boneless leg syndrome, and taint misbehavin’.
- It is real. You have a very limited imagination.
- Because he bravely uses the constitution to preserve our individual right to be an a-hole, tonight we salute Robert Ekas, difference maker.
- F*ck it, let’s call it a street.
- Ekas has been pulled over multiple times for no crime other than DWA – Driving While A-Hole.
- SOMETHING ABOUT UH, WAVES OF DISSENT. UH. Y’KNOW. UH, UH, UH, UHHHHH… WOW! I COULD CALL MY SON REAL QUICK AND ASK HIM. -THOMAS JEFFERSON
- Dear England, Suck It!
- George Washington – America’s First A-hole
Benjamin Franklin – Americas Wisest A-hole
George W. Bush – America’s Greatest President - Is it a good book? All right, let’s move on.
- Then the tortoise wins and then you’ve got space turtles.
- Bruce Willis movies frighten the hell out of me.
- Wait a minute, asteroids are coming for *me*?
Always a good show when Cheating Death is a segment. The Difference Maker segment had some funny, strategic editing. Those types of clips remind me of the segments Stephen used to do on TDS. Easterbrook, in my opinion, tried too hard during the interview. I’m not sure if he tried too hard to be funny or insert comments he thought Stephen would relate to but it looked like he was forcing the interview instead of just letting it flow naturally (I can’t think of any examples right now- I’ll have to rewatch). Stephen, on his end, was quick witted and responded in the ridiculous!
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Both Cheating Death and Difference Makers had me laughing really hard!
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“pubic thatching” kind of sounded like a cool idea… unless, of course, it isn’t.
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Oh, Prescott Pharmaceuticals, how I love your mad lib side effects! Now I have to go back and watch the last “snus” segment, for its mouth-numbing goodness.
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Ohhh the “Snus” segment. One of the greatest, most adorable character breaks ever! :]
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“Skeletal griffining” – lol
[World of Warcraft reference - when you die in the game, you reappear as a ghost at the graveyard closest to your body. You then have the choice of resurrecting at that spot (at the cost of damage to your equipment and temporary "resurrection sickness") or making a "corpse run" back to your body to reappear there at full power. However there are many zones with locations accessible only via flying mounts (griffins, dragons, flying carpets, etc.), so ghosts in those zones are provided with "Skeletal Griffins" on which to fly back.]
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Welcome to the blog, allium! I didn’t know that reference at all – thanks for the clarification!
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Lately I’ve been wondering more about all the Stephen heads that they paste onto other people’s bodies and other random things. Does Stephen shoot them on an as-needed basis? Are they taken from images that already exist somewhere? Does the graphics department have a huge file of Stephen heads with different expressions and from different angles that it can look through when it needs just the right one? (If this is the case, I would like a sticker set made for me, please). Do they actually use the same few over and over again? Guess I never noticed.
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I thought the editing of Ekas was a cheap shot – especially the part where he tried to remember the quote by Jefferson – including pause words like “uh” in a transcript is unprofessional, even the most erudite speakers use them when speaking extemporaneously. Good editors remove them for clarity, here Colbert used them to make fun of the guy.
I also didn’t think the cop was a “good sport” he was pretty straightforward in his acknowledgment of police abuse of power – he said things like “it makes it more entertaining for the police.” With great power comes great responsibility – we trust in cops not to abuse their power for petty and selfish reasons, they are expected to follow a much higher moral standard than a plain citizen – after all their sworn testimony holds much greater weight in court than the average citizen’s.
Harassing a guy for making a hand-gesture that annoys you, but otherwise has no effect on you or anyone else, is straightforward abuse of power. It only serves to reinforce the stereotype of cops being rabid ego-maniacs that can’t tolerate someone who does not “respect their authoritay.” And that stereotype erodes the ability of the police to do their job safely and effectively.
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Thanks for the comment, Damocles!
You bring up some valid points, but I also think that some of your comments seemed worthy of debate. Was the editing a “cheap shot?” I don’t think so. It was pretty obvious from the get go that the point of the piece was to show that Ekas may be an idiot, but he has every right under the constitution to be an idiot.
However, I don’t think that the piece was a total hatchet job on Ekas. They brought in an expert on the legality of expressing oneself by flipping the bird to show that he was indeed in the right. Also, in addition to the way that they edited some of Ekas rambling, they also showed multiple clips where he was very articulate in stating that it was his constitutional right to be a “dick” (his words, not mine).
As far as the police, I believe that the context of the quote you mention was not that they were “entertained” by harassing Ekas, but that they were entertained by the occasional sign of disrespect and rebellion against their authority. I do think the police made a very valid point that pointing obscene gestures at a police officer was a very good way to call attention to oneself.
The case of whether Ekas was truly being harassed, or simply going out of his way to call attention to himself by rudely gesturing at the police officers, was the point of the lawsuit. But the point of the segment seemed to show the ridiculousness that surrounded both the claim, and the person making the claim.
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So happy to see another Cheating Death! Although I do wish they had kept the new intro of Stephen hustling Death with a deck of cards. But those side effects crack me up every time – “pubic thatching” just doesn’t sound right, but that doesn’t make it any less hilarious. I loved the tiny character break, but what I loved even more was Stephen’s clever “my tongue is depressed” ad-lib immediately after. :)
Oh, and huge props to Eugene Mirman for playing Stephen’s Indian spirit guide!
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