EPISODE NUMBER: 7011 (January 19, 2011)
GUESTS: Ron Reagan
SEGMENTS: Black-Tie Dinner for Hu Jintao, Tip/Wag – Four Loko & Horoscopes, Shout Out – Preston Pysh
VIDEOS: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Can I ask a favor of you Zoners please? If you ever have the blessed fortune to be able to make it to a live taping of the “Colbert Report”, please don’t ululate. It’s very distracting for the home audience. And it makes the viewing experience about you being a jagoff, not about Stephen. Thank you.
The description of “Stephen Colbert Hair-Alike” to describe China’s President Hu Jintao was a fantastic joke to start off the show. I think Stephen’s impression of John Boehner has got to be the best “orange” reference yet. And I giggled quite a bit at the character breaks during the Tip/Wag segment. The little character Magic 8 Ball Character break – “I didn’t like that one” – was sweet, but the Miss Cleo break was classic. I love seeing the wheels turning when he’s working on a comeback like that. The Shout Out (Hey!) segments featuring the fans who are also members of our military are always wonderful but when the segment features David Hasselhoff running down the beach, they get positively delish.
What did all of you think of the episode?
The Boehner costume was hilarious! Especially the little eye-holes cut into it. Loved all the character breaks last night, and that Miss Cleo hat was ridiculously funny.
I liked that Stephen asked Ron Reagan about the things that his father did that Stephen should forget to keep a conservative image of him in his head. I don’t know a lot about Reagan’s politics (or Nixon’s, for that matter, though I would like to read more about both of them), but I do know that I hear a lot of bad things about him that are mostly opinions. So it was kind of nice to hear from Ron Reagan the more liberal things that his father did that people around me just refuse to tell me about. .
Shout Out (Hey!):
+2
Well, I am here to tell you that Nixon is as bad as they say, from his political start as part of McCarthy’s HUAC witch hunt hearings to the Watergate break-in. And that barely covers it. In spite of what he said, he WAS a crook. Yes, it is true that NIxon opened up relations with China–that I’ll admit.
While by today’s standards Reagan may seem “liberal”–partly because this country has become so polarized, and partly because the right wing has become so hardcore–his economic policies were very good for the rich and very bad for the poor, and his deregulation has had devastating effects on our safety.
I would say my comments on Nixon are harder to debate factually than my comments on Reagan, which conservatives would protest. After all, Nixon DID have to resign, and probably should have had to even earlier than he did.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+2
Loved the Boehner costume! I live in his district and saw him in the grocery store once over the summer. It took everything I had not go over to him and give him an earful. I’m glad my kids and husband were with me. That made me behave myself.
Conservatives now are so different from the Reagan-era conservatives I often wonder how they can invoke his name with a straight face.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+1
Is the first paragraph here referring to the fact that the crowd took a little bit longer to die down than usual? Colbert remarked, “This is the kind of moment you wish you could capture with a picture,” which elicited a negative response that I found strange. Could someone enlighten he here?
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
I wasn’t in the audience, but my immediate thought was that something about Kodak came up during the pre show Q&A. Maybe someone in the audience works for Kodak and wanted him to give them a plug? The way he very deliberately didn’t use the word Kodak when describing a Kodak moment made me think that might be the case. But who knows! Would love to read a taping report.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+1
I just assumed someone asked about the no camera policy and this was his way of teasing them that they were not going to be allowed to take a picture. But yea, if anyone was there and could fill us in on that it would be much appreciated.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+2
I wasn’t there either, but judging by the reaction of the audience, it sounded more like maybe someone disobeyed the no photography rule and got kicked out prior to the show starting. There was a you-did-not-go-there! feeling to the audience’s reaction that made me think whatever caused the comment was a little more controversial than an audience member asking for a plug or asking if he could take a picture.
When I attended a Letterman taping in 2008, a guy in the row in front of me broke the no cell phone rule and was immediately kicked out by security. He argued he was simply texting someone (which, for the record, wasn’t an excuse considering they said to turn off all cell phones, and explained why, about half a dozen different times), but these shows take their rules pretty seriously.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
Two things that nearly killed me:
1. The Black Swan reference. (Oh my GAWD, Stephen.)
2. Baby talking his missile. I think that was as much for his amusement as it was ours.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+4
1. The Black Swan reference. (Oh my GAWD, Stephen.)
LMAO, YES. “Oh, my GAWD”, indeed :D. I giggled mercilessly at that for a good number of minutes. Stephen, you devilish little man, you… The look on his face afterward made it all the funnier, too.
I liked when the paper rolled off the desk, too, that was hilarious. And the Boehner costume was inspired :).
Fully agreed with the comments people here have made about conservatives and Reagan and such, too. Pretty much about sums it up.
Shout Out (Hey!):
+1