Pop Culture References in The Colbert Report: Feb 28 – Mar 3, 2011

Welcome to No Fact Zone’s weekly roundup of cultural references on The Colbert Report. From Darcy to Danger Mouse, String Theory to Shakespeare, we’ve got the keys to this week’s obscure, oddball, and occasionally obscene cultural shout-outs (hey!).

Bon swa Zoners! I hope your week is going well. I am sitting here with a slight bellyache from recently partaking in too much Americone Dream (again) – if you believe there is such a thing as too much carmel-y and waffle cone-y goodness! Stephen and the gang were on fire for yet again with two great Words, plus the Jimmy Fallon sketch reinforced the notion that sometimes a little goofiness with friends is just what we all need. What was your favorite segment from this week?

Monday

Anonymous Hacks The Colbert Report

Suddenly I’m wearing a mask? I don’t understand. It wasn’t even ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Wednesday!

Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut, Venetian masks were featured prominently in the film. In the opening Christmas scene as well as another, more scandalous scene later on in the film (you can find details here). The movie and the masks are so interlinked, that some sites on the history of masquerade cite the film and offer reproductions for sale. Other mask sites offer quite an interesting look at their meaning in the film. Another fascinating review of the film can be found here.

Art Stephen Up Callenge – Phillips de Pury Auction

We got that lady there, we got a kinda naked lady there and then my portrait is on the next page there.

The artwork featured in the auction book preceding Stephen’s portrait is titled “Opium” and was created in 2004 by Dutch artist Amie Dicke. She is known for using common objects and popular advertising images in her works. Some examples of these include magazines, furniture and mannequins. Visit this site for a large selection of her work.

Tuesday

Evan Osnos

My guest tonight is the New Yorker magazine’s China correspondent. I’ll ask if their cat psychiatrist cartoons are being suppressed in Beijing.

This is likely an allusion to the controversial rabbit cartoon that was banned in China earlier this year for its political overtones. Earlier this year, a video was released in conjunction with the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The cartoon (a Year of the Rabbit tribute) depicts what appears to be Happy Tree Friends-style violence. It portrays bunnies being poisoned by formula, an allusion to the poison formula scandal, rabbits being evicted from their homes and several other similarities. An example of one the New Yorker’s cartoons Stephen mentions can be found here.

As a side note: Earlier this year Evan Osnos wrote an article in the New Yorker on the increasing need for psychoanalysis in Chinese society and -incidentally-2011 is the Year of The Cat in Vietnam. Intentional or not, I thought it an interesting connection!

I can haz Year and psychotherapy?

The Word – New Country for Old Men

Don’t worry, we’ll still maintain normal diplomatic relations with poor America [On "Undercover Boss"]

Undercover Boss is a show on CBS. The premise of the show is that executives of various companies leave their posts and work alongside their workers – undercover of course. This allows them to have hands on experience with what their workers go through on a day-to-day basis, oftentimes revealing some of the contradictions in expectations and reality of the work.

Wednesday

The Word – Economic Boom

Because developing, building and selling weapons is a perpetual money making machine ["War is Sell"]

The quote “War is Sell” is a play on the phrase “War is hell” – spoken by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in his address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy in 1879, cautioning the young men from getting caught up in the glorification of battle: “I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!” Full context of this quote can be found here.

Harry Connick Jr.

We have a parade called the Krewe of Orpheus that rolls every Monday night.

A krewe is an organization that puts on a parade and or a ball for Mardi Gras. In order to become a member of a krewe you must either be related to a previous member or meet another criteria by means of an application and/or fee. The Krewe of Orpheus is a relatively new krewe that was introduced in 1993, and is currently one of the largest. It is named for Orpheus, the legendary Greek musician and poet, who was the son of Calliope and Apollo or Oeagrus. Harry’s father – Harry Connick Sr. – is the President Emeritus of the krewe.

Thursday

Ice Cream Fight with Jimmy Fallon

Your ice cream is like a Jimmy Fallon SNL sketch. Half way through you break down laughing and you can’t finish it.

Indeed, Jimmy Fallon is known for his propensity for breaking character (or “corpsing“) in many of his Saturday Night Live sketches. Here is a link with the top 10 SNL crack ups – Fallon is in half of them.

Mark Moffett

Einstein had a quote that if bees disappeared we’d be dead in 4 years because we’d have nothing to eat.

The quote that Stephen is referring to is: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live,” but the authenticity of this quote is in question. Some mythbusters, such as Snopes have concluded that its origins are “undetermined” while others say outright that it is fabricated. The only thing that is proven is that the quote goes as far back as January 1994 Associated Press article by Paul Ames on a beekeepers protest of a meeting of European Union agricultural ministers.