Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – August 2, 2010

Happy Monday, Zoners! Is everyone ready for another new week of shows? Last week was so much fun, I hope this week continues the silliness. It’ll be hard to beat “Try making chlorophyll in there, motherf#%&er!!” and Grunt Shakespeare, but I know Stephen and his team of creative geniuses will come up with something totally different but equally silly this week. I’ve got a few news items for you to start things off, including an assessment of Stephen’s “truthiness” by PolitiFact, a late-night TV host created by Frankenstein, and a few comments on last week’s guests. Here’s your zeitgeist for Monday, August 2nd. (And how did it get to be August already?)

Fact-checking the Report

• PolitiFact Texas took a look at Stephen’s statement in the July 6th “I’s on Edjukashun” segment that Texas can’t afford new science textbooks because of an $18 billion budget gap. The article will give you the long-winded explanation, but long story short: the projected budget shortfall is estimated to be “between $15 and $18 billion.” So the conclusion is “Colbert cherry-picked the higher figure of the budget board’s latest shortfall projection — $18 billion — but so did the education agency in explaining the education board’s decision to delay buying new science textbooks. We rate his statement as Mostly True.”

Creating a late-night monster

• The Chicago Tribune wonders if the perfect late-night host exists, and says yes, if you take the Dr. Frankenstein approach: combine Craig Ferguson’s monologue (I completely agree, best monologue in late night), David Letterman’s interviewing, Jimmy Fallon’s subject matter, Conan O’Brien’s writer’s sensibility, Jon Stewart’s search for meaning, and Stephen Colbert’s performance skills. “‘The Colbert Report’ … makes much the same satirical point as [Jon] Stewart, but former Second City trouper Colbert does it as high theater, maintaining for five years now the elaborate fiction of ‘Stephen Colbert,’ a right-leaning, fact-averse, self-infatuated disciple of ‘Papa Bear’ Bill O’Reilly. Seeing it in the early days, you might have thought this joke would play itself out. It is testament to Colbert’s skill that the character not only still earns the welcome mat, but has grown richer.”

A comedian’s comedian

• Las Vegas Weekly has a quick three-question interview with comedian Jarrod Harris, including one about Stephen:
  • Q: You’ve known Stephen Colbert eight years, how does he figure into your career?
    A: He actually was the very first person I met in the entertainment business. He suggested I get myself into trouble, which meant standup and improv, so I did that, and for the next year he called four or five times to say, “Hey, are you still out there?” He was cool enough to stay on me, and that was a big motivating factor.

Inventing new words

• The Times Colonist of Victoria, British Columbia, in a column about Sarah Palin’s inadvertent (I assume) creation of a new word, “refudiate,” included this remark which nearly made me do a spit-take while sitting at the computer (emphasis added): “Every time she [Palin] tries to explain herself, a fire alarm goes off in Stephen Colbert’s house, which is what happens when politicians compound ignorance with hubris. Hubris is hilarious. Satirists eat it like Popeye eats spinach.” Of course they also expound a little on “truthiness,” both the word and the concept.

Last week’s guests

• EW’s Popwatch posted a summary of Kevin Kline’s appearance on the Report last week: “Never has any guest pretended to take the host so seriously. It was like watching two chess grand masters, as Kline absorbed all of Colbert’s buffoonery and earnestly responded with the driest of wit.”
• Movieline has a quick interview with Andy Cohen, and of course the first thing they asked him about was his appearance on TCR:
  • Q: I watched you and Stephen Colbert re-enacting the Real Housewives of New York City the other night on the Colbert Report. That was brilliant.
    A: I know, wasn’t that fun? …
  • Q: … Did Stephen come up with that idea, or was that something you wanted to try?
    A: He did. He came to me in the green room and they had picked the scene. It was a cold read. No rehearsal.
  • Q: Did you talk to Bethenny or Kelly after?
    A: I talked to Bethenny this morning and said, “You have to watch this.” She asked me, “Well did you get this part and this part?” We got some of her good lines, though.

(h/t Ms I and Katt)