EPISODE NUMBER: 7054 (April 26, 2011)
GUESTS: A.C. Grayling
SEGMENTS: Mitt Romney’s “peacetime” gaffe, Current Events, Charles Manson believes in global warming
VIDEOS: Tuesday, April 26, 2011
I mentioned in the episode guide for Monday’s show that I’m already suffering from a bit of 2012 election fatigue, and every once in a while I wish that Stephen would simply not discuss it during the course of a show. But when you take a look at the field of potential Republican candidates, how can anyone ignore the spontaneous stupidity coming from them? Mitt Romney’s gaffe being a case in point. If I was a Republican strategist, I think I’d be drinking heavily right about now, because none of the potential candidates look like contenders who can be taken seriously.
The Current Events segment started off well, with a prop failure and a little character break, and prop failures are never not funny. But I was shocked (pun totally intended) to see the footage of the security personnel at the Pittsburgh Pirates game use a taser on a drunk fan. I mean, who would think you’d encounter drunkenness and foul language at a baseball game? (*snerk*) But I laughed pretty hard at the idea of using some of those Taser Shockwave things to stun the entire crowd at a Washington Nationals-Pittsburgh Pirates game, because seriously, the crowds are sometimes really that small. The addition of pepper spray to this particular segment amused me, until I saw that it had been used on an eight-year-old — that’s just seriously wrong. I can’t decide if Gretchen Carlson was kidding or not when she said using pepper spray on kids was appropriate. Either way, I’d hate to be one of her kids.
Charles Manson creeps me out, because the guy is in a whole different class of crazy by himself. On the other hand, the idea of saying “…so you agree with Charles Manson?” to someone when talking about global warming is pretty amusing. Bringing in the “Schenectady Slasher” to get his opinion on Obamacare was a nice touch, and by nice I mean almost as creepy as Charles Manson. I liked the attention to detail: the Slasher’s name, Harvey Wayne Wilkes, borrowed the middle names of presidential assassins Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth, while “Wayne” is a freakishly common middle name for murderers (according to News of the Weird, which has even compiled a list demonstrating that fact).
I was looking forward to the interview with A.C. Grayling, expecting Stephen to give him a hard time over having the balls to write a humanist bible that leaves out God. Stephen brought it, but Dr. Grayling didn’t really engage him the way I hoped he would. He explained his objective in writing the book, but didn’t do go much beyond that so I was left a little disappointed. I’m not sure he really “got” Stephen.
What did you folks think about the episode? Let us know in the comments!
Eh, Grayling’s an old-school virtue ethicist. I’m pretty sure he “got” Stephen – philosophy profs come in one of two varieties. You get the ones who think very quickly on their feet, and the ones that don’t. Grayling is very firmly in the latter camp. (I’ll leave out my overarching commentary on it being a common quality in virtue ethicists, ahem. Oh wait,…)
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One of the things I love about Stephen is that while he is openly religious (to what degree, only he knows, but he has at least made a point of it on many occasions), he also uses his show as a platform for exposing all sorts of hypocrisy, political, religious and otherwise, and he leaves few stones unturned. (And if the Pope himself has a stone or two, he turns those over as well, it seems to me.) I really liked this interview because I thought that he (the real Stephen) was making a point of showing how one could lead a good life with integrity, regardless of beliefs. At least that was my take on it. Stephen appears to me to be someone who cares more about what someone does, and how that person leads their life, rather than simply what they believe in. There was something almost spiritual about it, to tell you the truth. I don’t know whether Mr. Grayling “got” Stephen or not, but I think Stephen “got” Mr. Grayling. Deeds, not creeds. (I was suspecting before the show that he would come down all thunderbolts and plagues on him, but I’m glad he didn’t after all.)
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Great joke on behalf of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was at that game! Loved the line about the police officer’s arm being so weak that he could pitch for the Pirates! We saw it on the news when we got home and I immediately thought of “Current Events”. Ann G is absolutely right – those seats are almost always that empty. But, it makes for cheap tickets.
Only Stephen could turn a phrase into, “So, you agree with Charles Manson…” Love it!
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Sorry for joining the discussion so late, but i’ve been on holidays … In fact, I was at the taping of this episode! Man, what a thrill. The chat before with Stephen out of character was awesome … He’s as sharp as a tack (as we all know). He actually stumbled on the word “Republican” in his opening segment not once but twice … And it was hilarious! So when the taser didn’t work it was the icing on an already delicious cake. And during the interview with Dr Grayling someone’s phone rang … Stephen politely stopped and said “excuse me, but I think an angel just got its wings … If that’s one of my staff, you’re fired, and if it’s someone else … Pleeease turn your phone off!”
He came out after the taping to talk to us again and took us on a “tour” of his set, pointing out his favorite things, including a picture of his dad and the microwave he stole from the green room of Bill O’Reilly’s show!!
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Thanks so much for sharing! It’s great to hear the background of the malfunctioning taser. Ha! Poor Stephen!
Can you recall any specifics from his out of character chat? Anything stick out from the Q&A?
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There was a group of Boston U students in the audience who were taking a class “The Colbert Report: Satire in America” (or similar!) and the prof asked Stephen how he felt being the topic of a university subject … Stephen asked “is it me or the character you study?” and they guy said “both, we look at a bit of who you really are”. Stephen said “well then I feel very significant … But wait, what level course is this?” and the guy said it was a freshman class. Stephen: “well now I don’t feel quite as significant!” The prof said “oh, but there’s hardly any freshman taking the class as all the seniors fill the spots before they get the chance to enroll” to which Stephen replied “Aaah, freshmen … Heh heh heh!”
The prof then asked whether Stephen thinks his character encourages civic engagement, or the opposite. None of us, including Stephen, knew what the opposite was, so Stephen asked him. He said “cynicism I guess” and … I wish I could remember Stephen’s answer, but it was far too sharp, too quick and too intellectual for me to keep it locked in my brain. Man! He was awesome.
The tour afterwards he pointed to all the things on his set, and he got “softer” when he mentioned his dad’s photo, and there was a ticket stub for the “I have a dream” rally that his mum went to, and when he said “and she was there, and she was pregnant with me” he sounded really proud.
I should try to write the whole experience down from start to finish so I never forget! My husband was there too, he should be able to fill in the blanks!
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That’s fantastic! Many thanks Mel! I’m glad you had such a great time. And if anything else comes to mind (or your husband’s) please go ahead and post it. As you may have noticed we’re kind of obsessive here. :)
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That’s so sweet and awesome that Stephen gave you an unofficial tour thanks to those students (especially the parts when he softened talking about his parents). Thanks for sharing, Mel!
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So very happy for and envious of you right now…a tour of the set?!?!? By Stephen?!?!? How do I get tickets for that?! More details, please *grabby hands* :) My sister’s phone went off during the warm-up comic during our visit in 2008. It was new and she thought she had turned it off. She couldn’t figure out how to and the comic, of course, made fun of her almost the entire time before Stephen came out!
Glad you had a good time!
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The “tour” was Stephen just going through all the stuff on the set, like the photo of House etc, and I’ve mentioned some more stuff in the post above. But I think it was because we had students in the audience that he came back out. So cool! I won tickets on eBay back in November. I went for them because we were going to be holidaying in the US (from Australia) and I can’t believe we got to go. Now I’ve done that and the Edinburgh Tattoo I can die a happy woman!! Thanks for being interested, and I hope your sister received from her phone embarrassment!
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Honestly, this was the only episode of the week that didn’t really fly with me/I didn’t download from iTunes (shocking, I know). The only segment I enjoyed was Current Events, mostly for the “it’s f***ing broken” character break, and then after that…mm. It’s probably because religion is a difficult subject for me to have a discussion about if I’m not in the right mood, and I was getting that crumply feeling you get in your chest when you listen to something heavy like religion. Also the Charles Manson segment kind of freaked me out a bit. It wasn’t a bad episode, just not my favourite.
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I know what you mean, Anais – however blindingly high the quality of TCR is, there’s occasionally bits which don’t work on a personal level, the Schenectady Slasher being a case in point in this instance. It just didn’t add anything for me. And I remember one episode when I didn’t crack a smile once – which was a pretty odd feeling.
[And I would just hate to be one of Gretchen Carlson's kids full stop, pepper spray or no pepper spray!]
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I know, right? (about the pepper spray thing)
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