Archive for I Am America
Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – December 3, 2009
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Greetings, gang! I was thinking, as I was getting the material for this post ready, that it feels like I haven’t done a zeitgeist post in ages. And then I realized… I haven’t done a zeitgeist post in ages. Last week was pretty quiet once the dust settled from Stephen’s trip to Lake Placid. This week has been a little slow, too, but it sure is good to have the joy machine back, isn’t it? Break weeks are good for getting caught up on other things, but I do miss that brilliant smile on my TV screen every night. Here’s the news, such as it is, that’s been piling up for the past week and a half, your zeitgeist for December 3rd.
Giving thanks
- Thanks a Lot: Pop Culture’s Finest Moments of 2009 – Wired’s “Underwire” blog: In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S., Scott Thill takes the opportunity to express his thanks for the past year’s best moments in pop culture. First on his list? Stephen Colbert. (Click on the link to the article for some bonus eye candy.)
“Stephen Colbert’s hyper-real genius – Is there a braver comedian, or journalist, on television? Stephen Colbert’s nightly merge of news, hilarity, social commentary, wit and shameless plugs for everything from his painting in the Smithsonian to his marketable man-seed have fully turned the pop-culture’s self-obsessed mirror upon itself. In 2009, he successfully invaded Iraq, the International Space Station, the iPhone, and much more… Colbert is Earth’s most relevant living cultural critic, and deserves his own network.”
Name dropping from a comedy legend
- A.V. Club interviews Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner: This is just a quick mention, but given the source I couldn’t help but think “how cool!” In this great interview, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner discuss the origin of their classic 2000-Year-Old Man routine and the dynamic of their comedy partnership. It’s an excellent example of the straight-guy/funny-guy dynamic, where the straight guy does all the set-ups and the funny guy gets all the laughs and often all of the credit. Mel Brooks cites Stephen as an example of someone who handles the set-up role very well: “Right from the beginning, I wanted the laughs. I wasn’t going to waste a minute setting things up. But Carl loved that job. I think today, Stephen Colbert does that beautifully. He plays that kind of naïve far-right Republican, and he plays it so earnestly and so naïvely, just the way Carl would play it with me and the 2,000-Year-Old Man.” The difference with Stephen, of course, is that he does his own set-up, then gets to deliver the punch line as well.
Evelyn McGee-Colbert
- I previously mentioned this in a zeitgeist post back in August: one of the producers of the comedy Circumcise Me, currently playing off-Broadway at the Bleecker Street Theatre, is the lovely Evelyn McGee-Colbert. The play is written and performed by Yisrael Campbell, a former Catholic who mines some comedy gold out of his spiritual journey to Orthodox Judaism. The posters for the show include this quote from Stephen: “Yisrael Campbell is the funniest Roman Catholic Orthodox Jewish comedian in the world. Hurry and see him before he turns Buddhist.” If you’re in New York and interested in seeing the show, tickets are available through January 17th; click the link to the play for more info.
I Am America (And So Can You!)
- Want an autographed copy of IAAASCY? The ArtPride New Jersey Foundation is having an online auction to raise money for the arts in NJ. The autographed book is one of the items up for grabs, and the bidding so far is quite reasonable. The estimated value of the item? “Priceless.” (Heh.) The auction is open now and ends on December 11. You can view the relevant information and place a bid on the book here.
Better Know a Lobby
- Hah! Monday’s “Better Know a Lobby” guest, Joseph Cirincione, posted this admission on Twitter the day after his appearance: “Stephen Colbert does the best imitation of a nuclear explosion I have ever seen.”
(h/t Ms I)
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Win a copy of the “I Am America (And So Can You!)” Audiobook!
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We here at No Fact Zone love it when Stephen Colbert is nominated for, well, anything. It makes us happy to see others honoring him. And we were beyond thrilled when we heard about his recent nomination for a Grammy award for the audiobook for his New York Times bestseller, “I Am America (And So Can You!)”
To celebrate Stephen’s Grammy nod, Hachette Audio has teamed with us to get the word out about the Grammy and to share some of Stephen’s latest honored work with his most diehard fans. Thanks again, Hachette Audio, for supporting the fans, and for supporting Stephen as much as you do! It’s greatly appreciated.
Act quickly – this contest ends soon!
CURRENT GIVEAWAY CONTEST:
“I Am America (And So Can You!)” Grammy Contest
TO ENTER:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY – not that we really sell anything here. Send an e-mail with your mailing address included to:
grammycontest (at @) nofactzone.net
(Seriously, I’m not kidding, PUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS IN THE E-MAIL. If I don’t have your address in your e-mail, I’m drawing a different name. How can I mail you your prize if you don’t give me a place to send it? In past contests, I’ve had to draw multiple times to find people who actually sent me their addresses. I want to give you cool, free stuff, I really really do. So make it easy for me. Thank you.)
One Entry Per E-mail Address – Jesus doesn’t like it when you cheat.
(Entries are accepted from Thursday, February 5, 2009 to Sunday, February 8, 2009, with the drawing held at the end of the day on Sunday, February 8, 2009)
Five (5) winners will be selected, and each winner will receive one of the five prizes below. The prizes are provided by Hachette Audio, a subsidiary of the Hachette Book Group.
- GRAND PRIZE – Five available.
- One (1) copy of “I Am America (And So Can You!)
And as always, check out the Official Rules for the contest here!
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‘I Am America (And So Can You!)’: Now Grammy-nominated
Posted by: | CommentsCongratulations to Stephen Colbert, the authors of I Am America (And So Can You!), Hachette Audio and the artists involved in the audiobook for their Grammy nomination in the category of “Best Spoken Word Album”.
GRAMMY.com has posted this year’s full list of nominees here; here’s Stephen’s competition this year:
THE 51ST ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS LIST
For recordings released during the Eligibility Year
October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008
Note: More or less than 5 nominations in a category is the result of ties.. . .
Category 79 Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling)
An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore)
Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon & Blair Underwood
[Simon & Schuster Audio]Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
[Simon & Schuster Audio]I Am America (And So Can You!)
Stephen Colbert (& Various Artists)
[Hachette Audio]Life Beyond Measure
Sidney Poitier
[HarperAudio]When You Are Engulfed In Flames
David Sedaris
[Hachette Audio]
Congratulations again, everyone, and best of luck on awards night!
Tip of the hat to Ty for the link!
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CONSUMER ALERT: I Am America (And So Can You!) Wall Calendar
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A few days ago we posted about the I Am America (And So Can You!) Wall Calendar being available along side the 365-Day desk calendar. I just got a message from Twitterer/Zoner ToPaintSunlight:
Warning: got Colbert ‘wall’ calendar from calendars.com and it was the ‘desk’ calendar I already got. Alert the media!
So if you were planning on buying both – you may end up with two desk calendars! Ack! Sorry about the confusion, guys, seriously!
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‘I Am America (And So Can You!)’ Wall and Desk Calendar available NOW!
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve mentioned the I Am America (And So Can You!) 2009 Desk Calendar, but it looks like there’s going to be a wall calendar, too! Here’s a graphic from the back of the Desk Calendar, courtesy of Calendar.com:
h/t Colboarder tillerfamily
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BREAKING NEWS: Is Stephen Colbert going to the Democratic National Convention?
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According to the Denver Post, during the Democratic National Convention, an exhibit called the The Presidential Experience will be featured. According to the Post, a cavalcade of authors will be featured signing their books at the exhibit, and one of those authors scheduled is Stephen Colbert.
Yes, kids, it looks like Stephen Colbert could very well be going to Denver! We’ll post more at No Fact Zone as soon as soon as we get any more information.
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Hey, Associated Press
Posted by: | CommentsAlternate post title, courtesy of Kinaesthesia:
I Am Fact-Checker (And You Can Too!)
You might want to hire a proofreader.
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Read ‘I Am America (And So Can You!)’, you pantywaists!
Posted by: | CommentsMore fun from the Guardian, which is doing an admirable job of introducing the joys of I Am America, The Colbert Report and Stephen Colbert to the British audience:
Facts are for pantywaists
Liberals beware! Stephen Colbert’s brand of comic neo-con nonsense is on the rise. In an exclusive extract from his book I Am America (And So Can You!) he outlines his guide to Hollywood. First, Ben Marshall introduces the self-titled ‘fool’…Saturday May 31, 2008
The GuardianWatching Stephen Colbert can, for the uninitiated, be an alarming experience. Stephen Colbert, the writer and comedian, plays the part of Stephen Colbert, the tub-thumping, bible-bashing liberal-baiting rightwing pundit with such wild-eyed conviction you often wonder where the former ends and latter begins. His show, The Colbert Report, is a furious gale force of noxious neo-con nonsense that is at once extremely funny and deeply worrying.
. . .
Colbert has described his character as a fool. He is in fact something far funnier and more dangerous. Like Bush he is a bright man who embraces ignorance, exuberantly making up for his paucity of knowledge with the stridency and absurdity of his opinions. Indeed Colbert would probably argue, as Hillary Clinton did recently (on the ludicrous idea of gas tax holidays), that being well informed about an issue only helps to cloud it. Just like Colbert, Clinton dismissed experts as elitists. Colbert actually refers to experts as “factonistas” and claims there are more nerve endings in the human gut than there are in the human brain. “I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument,” he boasts.
. . .
Now, he has a book. Colbert has always said that books and reading are for “pantywaists”. But this one’s different he tells us; this is a book you buy for the simple pleasure of owning some more pictures of Stephen Colbert…
Go here to read the full article, plus an excerpt from the I Am America chapter on Hollywood
I wonder whether there are differences between the U.K.’s version of I Am America and the one sold here. Food for thought …
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