Ooooh...Somebody's mad!
Real Mad.
And for some more comedy, via Crooks and Liars,
"Frist blames Clinton for gas prices"
Update: It may seem as though I am harping on this, but I cannot say this enough: It is about time somebody went into the belly of beast and called bullshit on this whole culture. The politicians, the President, and his PR firm, the institution formerly know as the Free Press, which used to tell it like it was.
The reactions keep getting better...Here's a couple.
The SF Gate:
"It is a beautiful public scolding couched in a satiric wink, and it simply could not have been much better".
By the by: I think they owe me a residual.
Editor and Publisher:
"Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart's comedy is at the expense of demeaning our administration. With a liberal audience, that goes over well. Watching him the other night, there were very few laughs; thus, the audience found his humor somewhat off base. However, I doubt he got the message. Does anyone ever remember Jack Benny and Bob Hope?
Willa Miller Huntington Beach, Calif."
This is a great Salon article on the fracas.
"It was Colbert's crowning moment. His imitation of the quintessential GOP talking head -- Bill O'Reilly meets Scott McClellan -- uncovered the inner workings of the ever-cheapening discourse that passes for political debate. He reversed and flattened the meaning of the words he spoke. It's a tactic that cultural critic Greil Marcus once called the 'critical negation that would make it self-evident to everyone that the world is not as it seems'. Colbert's jokes attacked not just Bush's policies, but the whole drama and language of American politics, the phony demonstration of strength, unity and vision. 'The greatest thing about this man is he's steady', Colbert continued, in a nod to George W. Bush.'You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday' [...]
"In the late 1960s, the Situationists in France called such ironic mockery 'détournement', a word that roughly translates to 'abduction' or 'embezzlement'. It was considered a revolutionary act, helping to channel the frustration of the Paris student riots of 1968. They co-opted and altered famous paintings, newspapers, books and documentary films, seeking subversive ideas in the found objects of popular culture. 'Plagiarism is necessary', wrote Guy Debord, the famed Situationist, referring to his strategy of mockery and semiotic inversion. 'Progress demands it. Staying close to an author's phrasing, plagiarism exploits his expressions, erases false ideas, replaces them with correct ideas'."
Remember in times of old when Don Imus did the same thing to Clinton? The media took that and ran with it.
ReplyDeleteI like Jon Stewart's comment questioning why those who hired Colbert would be surprised when he did the same schtick he does every day on his show. That's a good question. What was their motivation? Did they expect him to bend over? Is that what they were hoping for?
ReplyDeleteAs we discussed last night, it was an historic moment.
ReplyDeleteHe not only showed that the Emporer has no clothes, he went on to point out that Bush is hung like a golf pencil.
That must be why Laura is hung up on horse cocks.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that at last year's correspondant's dinner that she said "George is somewhere trying to milk a stallion" or something like that?
ReplyDeleteYeah. Apparently a joke about the President giving a horse a hand job meets with the formalities and decorums of this event, even if Colbert's remarks don't.
ReplyDeleteAt least he wasn't sitting on Jeff Gannon's lap this time.
ReplyDelete