Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – September 8, 2010

Greetings, Zoners! It’s great to have our joy machine back this week, isn’t it? I’m really excited about the special shows coming up tonight and tomorrow night, and I’ve got a few links related to them in today’s zeitgeist. I’ve also got some gratuitous name dropping, battles with Fox News, and a special taping reporT that I think you’ll enjoy!

The “Returnification” shows

• The Albany Times Union has a brief article on the soldiers from the New York Army National Guard’s 206th Military Police Company who are delivering Stephen to the studio for the “Returnification” show tonight in an M1117 Armored Security Vehicle, and offered up this interesting detail: “The soldiers will require a police escort to get around New York City because of the size of the vehicle and it’s narrow visibility…” Can you imagine walking down a Manhattan street and seeing that?
• The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting take on the two special “Returnification” shows and how they highlight the Obama administration’s failure to mark the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq in any significant way: “Colbert came up with the idea in August after being underwhelmed by the Obama administration’s handling of the end of US combat in Iraq… [W]hile the president shifts his political message to job creation for the midterm elections, Colbert will deliver the TV ticker-tape parade the White House did not provide — a subtle dig at Obama, to be sure.”

The Restoring Truthiness rally

• Also from the Christian Science Monitor, speculation on whether or not the “Restoring Truthiness” rally could really happen, and how this fits in with the new paradigm for political involvement: “People don’t want to just listen to the messages from politicians anymore… They want to be shaping the message.” But Seton Hall University political scientist Matthew Hale point out the biggest weakness of the intended event: “‘Political events work best when the point of view is clear and consistent,’ he says. ‘But if you notice, both Jon Stewart and Colbert mock people across the entire political spectrum. That doesn’t fit the political event narrative as neatly as a real politician.’”

Fox News vs. the world

• EW’s Popwatch rates some recent “battles” between Fox News and various celebrities. The only one to get a rating of 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) was “Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert vs. Glenn Beck,” and they called it “…the war that will not end (and will continue to win Emmys).” They cite the segments that Jon and Stephen both devoted to Beck’s Restoring Honor rally before the shows went on break last week. Another battle involving TCR was Nas vs. Fox News, which scored a 7: after Nas tried to give Fox his signed petitions claiming racist election coverage in 2008, and Fox refused to accept them, Nas headed over to TCR where he and Stephen conducted an interview while sitting on the boxes of petitions, and Nas performed “Sly Fox.”

Talking heads and social media

• The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the results of a new social media study that “examined the leading eight ‘talking heads’ on TV and their effect on users of social-media networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg.” Not surprisingly, Glenn Beck was the most liked and most disliked of the talking heads, generating the most chatter and like/dislike votes. Jon Stewart was second, and although Stephen was included in the study, there’s no mention of where he fell in the spectrum. But he and Jon collectively made an inpact: “In terms of chatter generated by TV networks, Fox News (largely driven by Beck’s show) leads the pack, with MSNBC placing second followed by Comedy Central (largely driven by Stewart and Colbert) and CNN finishing fourth.”

A taping reporT

• For those of you who enjoy taping reporTs, here’s a nice one from a CBS blogger on bnet.com, and she calls it “My Night as a Colbert Fangirl.” It’s a conversion story as much as a taping reporT — she admits right at the beginning that she would’ve preferred to go to The Daily Show and wasn’t sure she’d fit in with Stephen’s “rabid” fans — and by the end she’s completely won over. She has some nice observations on how the audience is transformed from a random mob to a united audience ready to play their part in that night’s show.

Gratuitous name dropping

• An article at Wired about the big Steve Jobs/Apple presentation earlier this week described Apple’s test video for watching the presentation online: “The title of that test web page is ‘Bit Bop all’ — and if the video runs properly on your computer, you’ll see the words ‘Bip!’ and ‘Bop!’ accompanied by beeps… [I]s this some coded reference to Stephen Colbert’s God Machine, which makes sounds like ‘beep boop bop’?”
• After Ellen offers up some pics and comments on Paper magazine’s recent fashion spot featuring women in drag. One comment from a completely unrecognizable Veronica Webb: “When asked what kind of man she would like to be, she said: ‘I’d want Stephen Colbert’s mind and LeBron James’ body. I’d unite the world with sports and humor — actually, no, I would take Angie from Brad and rule the world.’”
• In an article about football and a certain commercial that will appear during a particular game (trust me, the details don’t matter), Fanhouse.com claims that the commercial won’t suck because, among other reasons, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder is “secretly Stephen Colbert.” Click through to the article for visual proof.

(h/t DB and wren)