Stephen Colbert

DGMacphee · Mon 01/05/2006 10:16:16

The video of Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner has been making the rounds. To sum up what happens, Stephen Colbert is just ten feet away from President Bush and rips him a new arsehole while the whole audience watches awkwardly.

I've been reading a lof of comments from people who've seen this video and most sum up in a few short words: Big. Brass. Balls.

And I agree.

Andail · Mon 01/05/2006 14:20:14

Yeah I read about that, it's great.
And George had to nod politely and shake hands afterwards, haha.

Anarcho · Mon 01/05/2006 14:20:34

I tried watching it but it's just too awkward. Painfully so. But I read the transcript...it's fantastic. I heard Bush walked out early following the speech.

MrColossal · Mon 01/05/2006 15:15:43

Good thing the major reports about the night sum everything up by saying "Bush pokes fun at self." and then mention Stephen Colbert in maybe 2 lines...

But either way, Colbert is pretty much the most testicled man in America.

Barbarian · Mon 01/05/2006 15:47:51

Being in Hong Kong the last few years, I'm a bit out of touch with the media and "mainstream television", so I've never heard of this Stephen Colbert guy untill now.Ã,Â But after watching those videos, I must agree that he certainly put Bush and his lackeys in their place, and that indeed he has some "Big. Brass. Balls."Ã,Â

Kudos to him for speaking the truth at such a gathering.Ã,Â Though I almost suspect some unfortunate "accident" might now befall him, or at the very least he's now towards the top of the "President's Shit List" amoung such other outspoken people such as Micheal Moore.Ã,Â Anyways, it was interesting to watch. Guess they expected something a lot different from him.

MashPotato · Mon 01/05/2006 16:29:12

Man, that was brutal... but hilarious

Being a regular viewer of the Colbert Report, I wonder what they expected him to do in the first place--I mean, what he said at the dinner isn't that different from what he says on his show.

Ghormak · Mon 01/05/2006 16:37:09

Colbert's daughters will be born with balls.

His sons with 4.

DGMacphee · Mon 01/05/2006 17:19:54

And all made of TITANIUM!

Raggit · Mon 01/05/2006 18:38:09

I watched the whole thing. It was spectacular! It's what I've been wanting to see happen for years, but never has until now.
I think that Press Secretary audition tape was hilarious!

Cheers to ya, Colbert!

Ashen · Mon 01/05/2006 18:54:58

Quote from: Anarcho on Mon 01/05/2006 14:20:34
I tried watching it but it's just too awkward. Painfully so. But I read the transcript...it's fantastic.

Can somone point me in the direction of a transcript, please? My google skills seem to have failed.

EDIT:
Nevermind, found one here.

Darth Mandarb · Mon 01/05/2006 18:58:06

I think the ONLY thing Bush and his people can do is try to pretend like it didn't happen ... I mean Bush's approval ratings are the lowest (I believe) that any President has ever had. It would seem like America is finally waking up?

ANY sort of back-lash they would try to direct at Colbert would probably only send that number lower.

I say hats off to Colbert ... it's one thing to tape a show in a studio ripping on the president, it's another thing ENTIRELY to stand 10 feet from the most powerful man in the world and speak your mind.

Not only is he a great combination of smart and funny, he has now proved he's got those aforementioned brass balls.

Anarcho · Mon 01/05/2006 19:35:57

The disturbing thing is that this hasn't received ANY attention in the mainstream media. It's like it never happened.

big brother · Mon 01/05/2006 19:50:20

Ummm....wasn't it broadcast nationally?

Isn't that mainstream enough?

Scummbuddy · Mon 01/05/2006 20:19:59

I know what Anarcho means... but I watched it live as he showed his video he produced as if he were the press secretary, and he can't get away from one of the better known press reporters. It was amusing, and I chuckled a bit, but ScubaChicVB didn't like it at all. She just didn't think it was funny. I did feel a bit bad for Stephen when the president wasn't even watching the video as it was playing. They had a split screen showing the video and the president's "reactions" during it play, live. The president really didnt care.

Then after it played, the show was over and the president really didn't stick around at all, like mentioned before. I kinda joked about that with ScubaChic at our apartment. Then Fox news anchors came on immediatly and decided to analyze the whole show, and discussed how mildly amusing Stephen was. I had to agree. It was alright. I love the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, but this bit was alright. If the video linked to above is more of like a "roast" of the president, well, then that would be certainly something, but it wasn't mentioned by those anchors at all. I'll check out the video later.

LimpingFish · Mon 01/05/2006 20:46:20

The fact that he manages to do it at all is to be applauded. Of course, America being the land of freedom and the first ammendment, they could hardly have dragged him off stage.

He manages to insult him by way of complimenting him. To say it isn't funny is to miss the point. He backhandedly calls the president an illiterate uneducated idiot in charge of a bunch of other illiterate uneducated idiots. While he is in the SAME room. In front of the world.

He ridicules domestic policy, foreign policy, the press, the Iraq situation, the military, and rightly so. The fact that what he is saying is largely true is all the more reason to commend him.

I'll be interested to see the fallout.

Anarcho · Mon 01/05/2006 21:34:39

No, I mean that it hasn't really been talked about in the mainstream papers or media...at least I haven't seen it. I mean when Harry Taylor confronted Bush at a "Town Hall Meeting" a while back it was all they were talking about on CNN and the like. What Colbert did was much more confrontational if you ask me. I mean, you can even look at what happened with the Irish reporter Carole Coleman. She interviewed Bush and dared to interrupt him, and it was widely reported. It was a big deal.

Now I'm not saying there's some "conspiracy" or something, it's just strange that I'm only hearing about this on blogs.

InCreator · Mon 01/05/2006 22:29:26

Dunno. It was quite funny and surprising, but I'm not sure if someone has brass balls here. Or how to measure freedom of speech / joke tolerance is such case.

Maybe - for someone like Colbert - a brave/insane? show like this guarantees stardom and a nice career. Not every comedian gets the chance to make similar appearance... and not every comedian dares to even dream about it.

Then again, isn't insulting an official a crime? Especially if the official happens to be -khm- the highest of them? And in public, media? He could be locked away in totally legal manner and no one could complain about it... It would just be bad for George's already bad ratings. I'm not familiar with laws of US, but I believe there's a paragraph for ~~cheeky comedians~~ insulting officials

.

Well, there's not much countries where a comedian could pull tricks like this... I can't imagine how such show would end in... Russia, for example. The comedian (to trick the public) would maybe walk off unharmed, but the director(s) of TV station(s) broadcasting such show nationwide would spend unknown amount of time in a small, wet, cold room... and never be a director again. Even if there would be NO repressions, the comedian would be fired immediately, just because directors are afraid of power and trouble it may cause.

If Bush had good advisors or figured out himself (er, maybe not), he would backfire this circus quite easily in his next speech - complain about "everybody not taking things seriously enough", "we're at war, for god's sake" and "enough of comedy", etc. Only way to get rid of buffoon's image is to start acting in serious manner.

Anyway, entertaining. As a comedy has to be. So someone did his work very well here.

Nacho · Mon 01/05/2006 22:37:52

Do you really call her "Scubachic" Scumbuddy?!?

MrColossal · Mon 01/05/2006 22:46:18

Increator, making fun of the president, the press and the administration is kinda the point of the correspondance dinner.

InCreator · Mon 01/05/2006 23:03:20

I didn't know that.

But...
Though there's always joking about power, but this video, well. It sounded a bit too personal and offensive to me. Satire works when "attacked" person laughs along with the crowd and gives a nice warm forgiving smile. Where was it? Well, later?