Archive for Colbert Report
Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – May 24, 2009
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Howdy, Zoners! With Stephen and the TCR staff taking a well-deserved break, this seems like a good time to catch up on some of the Colbert news from around the Internets. Here’s your zeitgeist for May 24th, the holiday weekend edition.
In honor of graduation season, the Huffington Post is running a poll of the ten best famous commencement speeches, and Stephen’s Knox College speech is included in the bunch. The poll is still open as I write this, so you know what to do, Nation — vote early, and vote often. Currently, Stephen has a significant lead with 27% of the vote, Jon Stewart is in second place at 15%, followed by Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey.
- Ten Best Commencement Speeches: See a list, take the poll – Huffington Post
“The speeches were chosen for the intensity of their messages, humor and historical significances. It’s a mixed bag! Let us know which one you like the most in this poll.”
Last Monday’s TCR appearance by Meghan McCain resulted in a different kind of Colbert “bump” — a significantly large number of online viewings. Apparently a lot of people were interested in what she had to say.
- No Meghan McCain Ratings Bump for Stephen Colbert, But Huge Online Spike – Politics Daily
“Meghan looked great, and even managed to throw Stephen Colbert momentarily out of characer, a first as far as I know (Um, no…), with her declaration that she is a pro-sex woman. I also have to give Meg props for resisting the enticing temptation to lick Colbert’s face.
“This got me thinking, Colbert is famous for taking credit when politicians receive a bump from going on his show. So I wondered if Colbert would get a similar bump from having the fabulous Meghan on his show. I contacted Nielsen Media Research and this is what they told me: Tommy, last night’s airing of Colbert Report averaged 1.1 million viewers (people 2 yrs or older), which is on par with the program’s average over the last 4 weeks.
“These are, of course, only the preliminary overnight ratings, and I would expect that a show with the bi-partisan appeal of the Colbert Report would have a built-in audience for Meghan McCain. (I’m sorry, what?)
“The good news is that Meghan’s clip is going gangbusters online, with over 48,000 views on The Colbert Report’s website, making it the 3rd most watched clip this month after only a few hours.” (The number of views is up over 100,000 now, which appears to be a lot more than the average. But just for additional perspective, the clip of Green Day’s appearance has about 21,000 views, while the Colbert Coalition’s Giant Gay Storm ad has more than 400,000 views.)
Ever been curious about what Stephen, Jr., sounds like? Now you can find out, and make him your ringtone.
- Stephen Colbert, Jr., World’s Most Famous Bald Eagle, Debuts on Free Endangered Species Ringtone Site – Center for Biological Diversity press release
“Tucson, Ariz. — Today the Center for Biological Diversity added the cry of Stephen Colbert, Jr. to its free, educational endangered species ringtone site www.RareEarthtones.org…
“The Colbert, Jr. audio recording featured as a ringtone on the site is the world’s only known recording of the celebrity raptor’s voice, which most say is at least as distinctive as that of his father, Colbert, Sr. Many listeners even detect a note of sarcasm — or at least irony — in Colbert, Jr.’s high-pitched cry.”
If you enjoyed Monsters vs Aliens, this little news snippet might interest you. The movie may be making the transition to TV, although there’s no word if Stephen would be involved in any way.
- Monsters vs Aliens set for small screen outing – Contactmusic.com
“Children’s TV channel Nickelodeon has commissioned a TV pilot based on the hit movie MONSTERS VS ALIENS, according to the DreamWorks chief executive officer Jeffrey Katzenberg.”
Finally, UGO.com is currently running a feature on the 50 hottest sci-fi women, and Jane Fonda made the list for Barbarella. But what made me grin was the mention of Stephen at the end. (Emphasis added.)
- Top 50 hottest sci-fi girls – UGO.com
“#5 Barbarella – What makes her hot: Never has a spacesuit seemed more erotic than when it’s peeled off in zero gravity by Jane Fonda….
“What we want her to do next: Make out with Stephen Colbert again, because really other than that, we’re not sure we want to see Jane Fonda do much of anything.” (*snicker*)
(h/t Jennie, bipolypesca, Katt, and Ms. I)
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Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – April 26, 2009
Posted by: | CommentsGreetings, Zoners! I hope you all had a great weekend. If you’re in the Northeast, like I am, we’ve had a great taste of summer for the past couple of days. But regardless of where you are, I hope you all got in some relaxing and recreating and are ready to take on a new week.
Here’s some of what’s been happening in the Colbert-centric newsosphere for the past week, in your zeitgeist for April 26th.
Dude, it’s a comedy show. Really.
- Satire and the Comedy Channel – DenverPost.com
“Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are sometimes, no doubt, as silly as they come. But make no mistake, there is a core seriousness to their work, and more important, a core fearlessness that puts most other establishment (read ‘network’) political commentary shows to shame.
Fools they are, in the best Shakespearian sense of the word. ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Colbert Report,’ under the cover of ‘comedy,’ have become among the most incisive political commentators working today.
Perhaps the real stamp of Stewart’s and Colbert’s validity as important new voices on the political commentary scene comes from two disparate camps: Bill Moyers has wondered aloud if Stewart would have been a better choice to replace Tim Russert on ‘Meet the Press,’ and a number of right-wing commentators have begun to disparage the shows as adolescent and inconsequential, a sure sign of their nascent power.”
The COLBERT treadmill
- NASA’s ‘COLBERT’ Supplied by Wyle is Designed to Minimize House Calls – PR Newswire
“NASA’s newest piece of astronaut fitness gear headed for the International Space Station, the COLBERT, is perfect for a facility that wants to avoid too many house calls for repairs.
The COLBERT is designed to go up to 150,000 miles without a belt change.
‘The COLBERT represents the integrated efforts of our best engineers and scientists to deliver a highly reliable and very critical piece of flight hardware,’ said Jim Kukla, a group vice president at Wyle, the NASA contractor that has taken a commercial-off-the-shelf treadmill and modified it to meet spaceflight standards.”
The Colbert Name Game
- Stephen Colbert in Middle of Minor League Controversy – NBCSanDiego.com
“Things have gotten so Colbert-crazy that some organizations and sports teams are opting to have a Colbert theme just in hopes of getting some free publicity. The latest case of this comes from Normal, Illinois, where the owners of a future minor league baseball franchise are having a contest for the team’s future fans to vote for the team’s name and mascot.
One of the options? The Coal Bears.”
- Name selection for minor league baseball team in Downstate Normal gets interesting – ChicagoTribune.com
“An experiment in democracy went awry this week in Normal, when online voting for a new minor league baseball team’s name ended up with a risque term hacked to the top of the list, a suspected hijacking by the Colbert Nation, and one popular suggestion that turned out to be a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.
Officials knew something was off when they’d gathered more than 750,000 votes in less than seven days.
There also was suspected vote tampering with The Coal Bears, which overnight received more than 150,000 votes, apparently from fans of comedian Stephen Colbert, perhaps frustrated that NASA named only a treadmill after him this month even though he dominated online voting for a new space station room’s moniker.” (ONLY a treadmill? It’s a space treadmill!! – Ed.)
The Dana Carvey Show
- Did the Dana Carvey Show Have One of the Greatest Comedy Writer Benches Ever? – Slashfilm.com
“The Dana Carvey Show is now on Hulu. (Yay!! – Ed.) What’s the big deal? Well, when the sketch comedy show premiered on ABC in the mid ’90s — following a family-safe block of programming — millions were in awe at the stuff it got away with.” The show included an “insane roster of writers: Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Charlie Kaufman for starters.”
Stephen Jr.’s Latino cousin?
- Three falcon chicks hatch atop San Jose City Hall – MercuryNews.com
“For a mother who just watched three offspring hatch — and is watching her fourth egg — Clara appeared to be in excellent health Tuesday from her perch atop San Jose City Hall.
Clara, and her falcon lover du jour, Esteban Colbert, are now the proud parents of three chicks, technically called eyasses.”
Haha, someone’s been reading Wigfield! You can watch the falcon cam, “starring Clara and Esteban Colbert,” here. I haven’t been able to see anything there yet because I keep checking it after dark.
(h/t Jennie)
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The question that won’t die: Do comedians influence politics?
Posted by: | CommentsThe Washington Post did a fairly lengthy piece on comedians and politicians today, talking to a number of the satirists and academics about whether satire influences our perceptions of the candidates for office. (Spoiler alert! The Post’s conclusion is a decided “Yes!”) What I like about this piece is that it actually presents a range of responses to the question and goes the extra step of suggesting ways in which this influence might operate.
From The Washington Post (internal links omitted):
Comedians Of Clout
In a Funny Way, Satirical Takes Can Color Perceptions of the Presidential Contenders
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 12, 2008; C01Comedians Wield Political Clout
Nation’s sharpest satirists — including Lewis Black, left, and Stephen Colbert — are always talking about politics, but do they shape events?The Onion newspaper jokingly dissects how Barack Obama calculates his every facial expression to convey the countenance of Inspirational Leadership. Jon Stewart jests that Obama strikes poses so evocative of the forefathers on our currency, he’s not campaigning merely for president but rather is “running for coin.” And comic Lewis Black kvetches during a recent Washington performance that Obama exudes such off-the-charts optimism in these trying times, “even his nipples are filled with hope!”
Yes, nation, our sharpest satirists are ramping up.
. . .
[I]n the name of the greater public good, we’ve read the academic comedy studies (as oxymoronic as that sounds) and pored over the poll numbers. We resolved to watch more online video and late-night TV satire than you can shake a shtick at. We made pilgrimages to see Stewart and Black and Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher and Dave Chappelle perform their stand-up live — typically when they were tantalizingly within mere cab-meter clicks of the White House and the Capitol. Having recovered from this comic binge, there is only one rallying-cry reply to the question, “Can satirists affect our perceptions of the candidates?”:
Yes, They Can. You bet your keister — Yes, They Can.
. . .
[O]nce satire takes hold, perhaps its greatest influence is encouraging critical thought. “Good satire goes beyond the specific point it’s trying to make and teaches you how to think critically,” McGruder says. “Even after your favorite cartoonist retires or Colbert wraps it up, you’re not left believing everything they’re telling you.”
As I mentioned here recently, I find it hard to believe that people could get their news solely from shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. I also noted, however, that I thought people could sometimes be exposed to new angles on the familiar news stories or be moved to follow up on something with which they were unfamiliar, and so I agree with the conclusion that perhaps the most important role satire plays is engaging a person’s critical faculties. (For one example, consider the recent Daily Show piece on sexism in the campaign, then read this column.)
What do you all think?
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Stephen Colbert, ‘The Colbert Report’ nominated for TCA Awards
Posted by: | CommentsCongratulations to Stephen and to the gang at The Colbert Report for picking up nominations for the 2008 Television Critics Association Awards!
From the Montreal Gazette:
Lost and The Wire receive multiple TCA nods
Alex Strachan, Canwest News ServiceA serial thriller about castaways trapped on a desert island and a sprawling historical account of the Second World War are among the key nominations for TV’s best, as announced Tuesday by the Television Critics Association.
. . .
Stephen Colbert was a double nominee. The satirical talk-show host and comedian was nominated for individual achievement in comedy, as well as best comedy series, for The Colbert Report. Other comedy nominees include 30 Rock, The Daily Show, The Office and first-time nominee Flight of the Conchords.
. . .
Kudos to The Daily Show’s team for their nomination, as well (and to the hilarious minds behind Flight of the Conchords, which is the only other of those shows that I’ve seen).
TV Squad has helpfully posted about the nominations, too; here’s the full list of nominees in the “Individual Achievement in Comedy” category from their post:
2008 Television Critics Association Awards nominees announced
Posted Jun 3rd 2008 2:28PM by Bob Sassone. . .
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)
Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report)
Ray Wise (Reaper). . .
Congratulations, nominees, and I’m looking forward to seeing who comes out on top this July 19th!
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The Telegraph introduces the UK to ‘The Colbert Report’
Posted by: | CommentsFinally! The Telegraph introduces Great Britain’s audience to Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report with the thorough overview both man and show deserve.
From The Telegraph:
Stephen Colbert: the second most powerful idiot in America
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 18/05/2008His attacks on greens, pinkos and people who want to destroy Christmas have won him friends across the States – and enemies in the White House. Meet Stephen Colbert, host of a satirical news show that tells it like it is – sort of.
By Steven Daly
. . .The Colbert Report is news parody of the first order. The show’s titular host offers a funhouse-mirror reflection of the bellicose Right-wing opinionisers of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel (among others) who dominate and dictate the political discourse in the States with lengthy and obnoxious opinion-slots that are somehow passed off as ‘news’. Since this particular day happens to be Earth Day, it is Stephen Colbert’s duty – his patriotic duty – to belittle the event in a similar manner. Colbert’s production staff discuss the practicalities of giving the host a little balloon globe to wave at the end of a stick as he rants against America’s tree-hugging contingent.
Upstairs, past various ludicrous portraits of Stephen Colbert – including an oil painting of him as Napoleon on a rearing white steed – the boss-man sits behind his desk under a framed poster for Richard Nixon’s 1972 election campaign. The host of The Colbert Report (both words pronounced à la Français) is thrilled that he got show guest George McGovern, Nixon’s defeated opponent, to sign the poster. ‘I’ve always been a news junkie,’ says Colbert, 44, whose formative memories include after-school television programmes such as The Munsters being interrupted by the Watergate hearings.
It’s mildly disconcerting to find America’s favourite faux-conservative dressed not in his trademark preppy Brooks Brothers armour, but in black T-shirt, black shorts and Hi-Tec trainers. Colbert has just driven in from his home in suburban New Jersey, where he dropped the kids off at school (he has three) before doing a session at his local gym. Still, even in his baggy gym gear, he somehow maintains the immovable Republican hair that makes him so perfect for his strident on-screen role …
I highly recommend that you go read this (three-page!) article now; it’s filled with fabulous Stephen quotes about the show, his guests and all sorts of related goodies. Enjoy!
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Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh …
Posted by: | CommentsOkay, this isn’t news and it isn’t particularly original, but it’s a slow day in the Colbert-verse. From Variety (internal links omitted):
TV: Mock news shows pols tough love
Gotham Edition 10th Anniversary
By ROBERT HOFLERIt wasn’t always this way. The TV news delivered the news, and comedy was just so much sitcom fluff. Then someone learned a bad lesson from Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 masterpiece of media prescience, “Network,” and turned the nightly news report into entertainment.
Fortunately, the slack in political seriousness has been tightened over the years by a triumvirate of Manhattan-based TV comics. On any midweek afternoon, a political junkie in need of a laugh can jump from “Late Night With David Letterman” to “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” to “The Colbert Report,” all of which tape before live auds in midtown.
Who knew that one day Stewart and Stephen Colbert would ask more substantive questions of politicians than Charlie Gibson or George Stephanopoulos?
. . .
For those of you reading the full piece at Variety, is it just me, or does this feel like only the start of an article? I spent a minute looking for the button to forward to the next page before realizing that that was it …
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We now bring you this urgent Fangirl bulletin
Posted by: | CommentsZOMG SINGING IN LATIN!
(What? I’m Catholic, it’s cool to me!)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
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