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!).
Hey Zoners! I loved loved loved they Olympics coverage, but I admit I’m happy to get back to regular shows, too. This week’s Apopcalypse ranges from Greek Classics to the latest fad in rickrolling, with an extended stay in U.S. Presidential history. If you’re in the mood for music, spend some time with Monday’s links – there are some real gems in there. What did you enjoy most this week, back on American soil? (** = TCR/TDS link)
Monday: Olympics Wrap-Up – Michael Buble
“Is there a Great Canadian Songbook?…Sure, you got the Chickety China the Chinese Chicken song. You got Safety Dance and Sunglasses at Night.”
Hey, a Great Canadian Songbook? Tune up your ears and let’s get nostalgic. We’ll start with Barenaked Ladies (the fab Ontario-based band), and their 1998 song “One Week”, a rapid, silly stream-of-consciousness song, including such lyrical oddities as “Chickity China the Chinese Chicken”. And if you remember 80’s pop music, you’ll know Montreal’s Men Without Hats and “The Safety Dance” (with its inexplicably Ren-Faire themed video). Another Montreal native, the ubercool Corey Hart, was top of the charts in the early 1980’s with hits like “Sunglasses at Night”. Canada’s not all froth and New Wave pop, though. As Michael Buble pointed out, Canada’s also given us Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and k.d. lang.
“We have a scene here with you and Wesley Snipes. Is Wesley Snipes a vampire?”
In one of his trademark Seriously Pumped roles, Wesley Snipes played Blade in the eponymous action flick trilogy. The films are based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, a human-vampire hybrid (ok, technically a dhampir) who protects the human race by hunting vampires. Take that, Team Edward!
Tuesday: President Obama’s First Physical & David Brooks
“We have ignored all the warning signs. Beer summit? Hello! Clearly he insulted that cop just for the excuse to pound a sixer of Old Milwaukee tall boys.”
We’ve featured the infamous White House Beer Summit previously on the Apopcalypse, focusing on the arrest of Harvard Professor (and **friend of the show) Henry Louis Gates Jr. outside his own home, and the ensuing ruckus. But President Obama, perhaps incautiously, added fuel to the fire by saying the police “acted stupidly” in the matter. It took 40 oz of lager and some well-staged handshakes for all involved to move past that one.
Brooks: “There’s actually like kind of tradition in American life, it started with Alexander Hamilton… go through Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt” Stephen: “Things did not end well for him.” Brooks: “For any of those guys”
Time for a brief review of famous Republicans and their fiscal policies. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (star of the $10 bill) organized much of the federal financial system, including creating the U.S. Mint and the first national bank. 16th President Abraham Lincoln instituted the first U.S. income tax, created a system of national banks, and established the first national paper currency since the Revolutionary War. 26th President Theodore Roosevelt moved to limit the influence of corporate interests on government, and regulate monopolies. But as noted, things did not end well for those gentlemen: Hamilton died in 1804 after a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr (and you think politics today is partisan!), Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and Teddy Roosevelt, well, he survived an assassination attempt, and died of an unrelated illness at age 60.
Wednesday: Jim Bunning Ends Filibuster & Greece’s Economic Downfall – Scheherezade Rehman
Curious about that catchy, yet somehow disturbing, “Trololololo” clip that so cheered Stephen? It’s Soviet vocalist Edward Hill, badly lipsynching to one of his popular recordings. With the meme spreading like wildfire, it may be poised to become the next rickroll. (h/t Jennie)
“A modern greek drama. Which means not only is the country’s economy failing, it’s probably banging its mother.”
Oedipus, mythical king of Thebes, cursed by a prophecy he ultimately fulfilled. In his attempt to evade his fate, Oedipus unwittingly kills his father, marries his mother, and gouges his eyes out when he learns the horrible truth. Need a refresher, but not ready to dive back into Sophocles? Try Oedipus, performed by vegetables. (Really!)
“Somehow Goldman created, let’s say, a hollow horse into which all of Greece’s debt was put. And somehow convinced the Europeans to open the gate to their financial fortress, and pushed all that debt into Europe. Is that the first time that’s been done by the Greeks?”
Love the extended metaphor to Virgil’s Aeneid, and the Trojan Horse. Stephen was up on his Classics today, I think.
Rehman: “In the words of Zorba the Greek, ‘only if there’s a catastrophe’ – or a natural disaster, can they give money to a country.”
I’d call that a somewhat liberal paraphrasing – In the 1964 film, Zorba the Greek actually says “Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man. So I married. Wife, children, everything – the full catastrophe”
Thursday: Iraqracy
“Remember, in our last election, John Edwards certainly wasn’t shooting blanks.”
**Friend of the show, former presidential candidate, and apologetic **adulterer John Edwards has recently admitted to fathering a child with his mistress Rielle Hunter, during his campaign (and during his wife’s cancer treatment).
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Daily Show Toss Recap – Klassic
By · CommentsBefore we go, let’s check in with our good friend Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report…
Happy weekend, Zoners! Oh, I was so hoping we’d get a new Toss this week; I was holding out great hopes for Thursday’s show. Alas, no luck this week. So let’s go to the vault! Here’s a great one from 2006:
6/15/2006: Daily/Colbert – Mad Magazine: Stephen points out Mad Magazine’s lampooning of the Daily Show, but takes issue with their blasting his meaningless non-sequiturs.
Does anyone have this issue of Mad Magazine? I haven’t read that magazine since I was a kid (in fact, I’m surprised to learn they were still publishing it as recently as 2006, and indeed that it’s still being published on a quarterly basis). I love this Toss because it’s so meta, referencing a Toss within a Toss, and then parodying a parody of itself. My mind nearly folds into itself just describing it. Yahtzee! What do you all think of this Klassic?
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Every now and again, we get tips about events that just warm the cockles of our hearts, and this one is a doozy. Story Pirates is a great organization that promotes literacy in young children. It boasts what I think is a wonderfully creative way to get kids involved in stories called the Play/Write Program. To quote the Story Pirates website, Play/Write is ” … a series of creative writing and drama workshops that lead to a musical sketch comedy show acted by adults and comprised entirely of stories written by kids. The award winning show has been described as ‘Monty Python meets Schoolhouse Rock.’” Gang, how cool is that?
Here’s the thing: it just got even cooler, because the Story Pirates group is holding an “After School Special” benefit. It will be hosted by The Daily Show correspondent (and friend of the blog) John Oliver, and there are some pretty amazing prizes up at auction for the Story Pirates’ benefit. Between now and March 20th, you can bid on prizes that range from a Wii console to a tour of the NCIS set (plus a meeting with its star), a cast-autographed script from Community or Parks and Recreation to VIP tickets to The Colbert Report.
Best of all, Jon Stewart is offering a uniquely heartwarming prize: an offer to star in your child’s story. That’s right, Jon Stewart will star in a performance of the story written by the winning bidder’s child, and the winner will receive VIP tickets to the show. Can you even imagine how amazing an experience this would be for the winner’s budding young author?
The benefit takes place on March 21st, and most of the auctions close one day before that. Please, all of you with deep pockets and philanthropic souls, head over to the Story Pirates site and make your bids.
(Huge hat tips to the folks at Story Pirates, Mark Malkoff and DB for letting us know about this event!)
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Nice! BookExpo America announced some of the writers it will feature this year, and one of them is that guy that used to be Stephen Colbert’s boss … what’s his name? Oh right, the very funny Jon Stewart! Even better, as co-author of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race, he’ll be the master of ceremonies for one of the Expo’s breakfast events. From Bookselling this Week:
Jon Stewart, Sara Gruen Among BEA Headliners
March 04, 2010. . .
THURSDAY, May 27, 2010
8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. THURSDAY BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST (Special Events Hall)
The Thursday morning breakfast will feature:
- Condoleezza Rice, author of Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (Crown)
- John Grisham, author of a forthcoming title from Doubleday
- Mary Roach, author of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (W.W. Norton)
Jon Stewart, author (along with the writers of The Daily Show) of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race (Grand Central Publishing) will be the Master of Ceremonies.
. . .
(h/t to Badgeriii and loudfan!)
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Episode 6032 (3/4/2010)
By · Comments
EPISODE NUMBER: 6032 (March 4, 2010)
GUESTS: Barry Schwartz
SEGMENTS: Stephen’s exclusive interview with Sean Hannity
VIDEOS: Thursday, March 4, 2010
This morning, I got up and started my guide at 6:30a and used the Comedy Central official full episode feed to watch the show for the episode guide. It was more frustrating than the Hulu feed, but it was doable. That gives me a bit of piece of mind.
Stephen’s magic show just cracked me up more than it probably should have. And at the end, where he was very obviously happy with the results, it made me laugh hardest of all. And Stephen’s grill would make Lil’ Jon proud.
I really enjoyed the interview with Barry Schwartz. Ironically, me buying his book is a most excellent example of the topic of the book. For weeks, I’ve been wanting to get an e-reader. I don’t have time to go to bookstores to get new books that I want to read (most of which I learn about on the show), and I certainly don’t have any more room on my bookshelves. So I’ve been seriously considering an e-reader. But which one do I get? Amazon has the most new books and good prices for those books, but the Nook and Sony e-readers have the most classic books for free. Amazon’s books are DRM, while Sony has the ability to “borrow” e-books from local libraries. The Nook has been reported to have a ton of glitches, but has almost the same amount of e-books as Amazon as well as the library of free classic books, and the prices for new books are comparable to Amazon. The Sony has the best quality screen of all the e-books according to the reviews I’ve read, but in checking the price of Barry’s book, “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less”, the Sony e-reader’s price is 11% higher. Is this indicative of their entire pricing model? Plus in researching reviews for the different readers, there are claims that e-readers are going to make a huge jump in quality while making a huge drop in price in 2010. Do I go ahead and get one of the options that are available, or do I wait a few months to see if something better comes along? So here I sit, still totally confused as to which e-reader to buy. Does anyone have any recommendations based on personal experience?
So what did you guys think of this episode? And seriously, any advice or recommendations on an e-reader?
- Do you hear that? That is the sound of your country being destroyed. Okay, technically, that is the sound of my burrito being finished.
- I bet those aren’t even doctors. I bet they work at the Clinique counter.
- Parliamentary tricks. In other words … magic!
- They want it to disappear just like my eyebrows just did.
- I also do children’s parties.
- And that judgment was based on everywhere I went in Iraq, from the Taco Bell on the base, to the Cinnabon on the base.
- You see, Iraq’s vibrant democracy isn’t hampered by election laws that restrict how candidates can raise and spend money. They let the free market decide who’s the best man for the job. And that is usually the guy giving away free meat.
- Folks, this leftover tip, or as it is technically known, a reservoir tip, goes out to one Mr. James O’Keefe.
- That is perfectly easy to explain – it was casual pimp Friday. Besides, no grills.
- Joining me live, from stuff I could edit together, my friend Sean Hannity.
- Stephen Colbert: In fact, one of my bitches quit last night, and there’s a huge hardware convention in town this weekend, and I really need someone to, you know …
Edited Sean Hannity: quote “Hang out with those rednecks?”
Stephen Colbert: Yes, “hang out”. - Hannity: “I need hooker boots and condoms.”
- If jeans are depressing, you’ve got a problem, buddy. There are lots of choices in pills out there.
- What flavor can we spray onto fried corn?
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Great news – Viacom is not going to sue us!
By · CommentsI just got off the phone with Tony Fox, whom you might remember as the gentleman who I wrote the letter to last night. He wanted to convey to the readers of No Fact Zone, and other fan blogs, that his words were misconstrued. According to Fox, the original intent of Fox’s interview with the Hollywood Reporter was to give a bit more clarification for an article about Hulu discontinuing the availability of Comedy Central programming through their site. Here’s the official statement from Tony Fox:
“The Hollywood Reporter story, and headline in particular, is completely wrong. We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use, and we haven’t changed our approach at all. Frankly, fair use works for us. We have never made it a practice to sue bloggers for the use of Comedy Central clips, and there’s no reason to believe that would be more likely today.”
Fox also made it very clear to me that, as we operate today, Viacom was very accepting of our fair use of their materials, and they encourage organic fan activity. And they specifically appreciate the No Fact Zone community.
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Because you know you’ve been singing this all day
By · CommentsSometimes I post things just for me. This is one of those times.
My partner in crime, MsInterpreted, found the full-length video of the snippet that they showed last night of that silly Trolalalalala song. It’s had over 700,000 views, so I’m guessing it’s some sort of viral video that I simply hadn’t seen yet. It makes me laugh so very hard.
The thing that I love most about this song is no matter what your native language, you can sing along!
EDIT:
Also, if anyone knows how to gank audio from a YouTube video, I would love love LOVE this to be my new ringtone.
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Episode 6031 (3/3/2010)
By · CommentsEPISODE NUMBER: 6031 (March 3, 2010)
GUESTS: Scheherazade Rehman, Garry Wills
SEGMENTS: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger
VIDEOS: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Any show that shows Stephen openly pouting, weeping, and talking about his obsession with Starbucks is a winner in my book. While I appreciate the comedy of the show, I also really like it when Stephen brings to my attention an issue which I knew nothing about. The interview with Scheherazade Rehman was very interesting, and I appreciated the perspective on the Greek economy.
I could seriously go for a Trenta cappuccino right now. This waking up at 6a is for the birds. And what is it with Stephen wanting to be covered/submerged in coffee? It’s good to see that the Starbucks Under Stephen’s Desk is still up and running, and that Barista Barry still has a job.
In leiu of a screencap, I would like to share with you this wonderful musical interlude from the show. I trolalalalove it!
- I’m just emotionally drained tonight, you know, because once again, I have been let down by a man. Why am I such a creep magnet? Jimmy, play something to get me out of my funk.
- That principle? Tough s**t.
- What if Gandhi had said, “F**k it, I’m getting a meat lover’s pizza”?
- A modern Greek drama, which means not only is the country’s economy failing, it’s probably banging its mother.
- I’m hungry.
- I hear Goldman has inside information that Greece is hiding its debt.
- Is Greece itself a natural disaster right now?
- These trachea coddlers think they can improve on the design of a hot dog. Hogwash! Which, incidentally, is a major ingredient in hot dogs.
- It’s [Starbucks] version of the Big Gulp, or in this case, the Big Twitch.
- This Trenta is just one step closer to my dream of Starbucks offering a plexiglass room that fills with coffee.
- You know what, folks? I am going to give Starbucks a rare double tip, or Dopio.
- This is great, because even ordering a decaf low-foam skinny frappuccino with cinnamon sprinkles isn’t enough to make me feel like a man.
- Thank you for making it Orange to reflect the current alert level. I assume it changes when it gets less or more dangerous?
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