Hilarious. Read a transcript at DailyKos. Watch it — Parts 1, 2, and 3 — at YouTube.
Now, you wonder, what song am I gonna use to tie this to music? Well, Ludacris was there. But so was Ray Nagin. So, Mr. Mayor gets the MP3:
Ween – “Chocolate Town” (MP3 Link Expired)
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In the spirit of truthiness, Colbert bombed. Badly.
he didnt bomb, that silence was from the press corp whose asshole he was ripping. and the truth hurts, real bad.
i actually caught this live on saturday night on c-span. i thought it was hilarious.
i was talking about this with my friend the other day and we both agreed, stephen colbert has created a character of himself. you really don’t know what he really believes in or not. he just says what he says for his show and he does it to be funny. i’d guess he leans more towards the liberal side since he was on the daily show so it was suprising to see he make a speech at the whitehouse correspondence dinner and to say things like he stands be our president.
of course he bombed, thats always going to happen when you insult your audience. and so he was a huge success. if he had been a hit with all those press folk, THEN he would have really failed. you only think he bombed because the audience is so hushed, did you see their faces? Why do you think the mainstream media isnt reporting on it, instead focusing on the bush’s twin act (even though that is not gaining any popularity among us commoners)?
Because Colbert’s speech went beyond that comfort level. Do you see how often he addresses and makes eye contact with Bush? G-A-N-G-S-T-A.
http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/wordpress/archives/3
I’m not sure if you are listening to the same speech that I am. I felt that Colbert made some of the most caustic remarks in regards to our president that I have heard, with an obvious liberal bias. His comments about the president were completely sardonic.
I think the silence was because some people were offended by the comments that Colbert made, while others were shocked that he was speaking so candidly with his targets attending the same event. Consider his “welcome” of Justice Scalia. When is it ever appropriate to make obscene gestures at someone while giving a public speech?
Granted, I do not disagree with the scathing remarks made about the presidency, but I now understand why the press is reacting so much to the matter, and it’s not because any damage was done to them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6va2fOXGmNU
this was funnier.
Some Guy, try to stay up to date on current events and you may have better luck understanding Colbert’s humor.
The Scalia gesture was in reference to a certain non-verbal response he gave a reporter questioning his impartiality in matters of church and state. He later argued that his “Sicilian” gesture was not actually vulgar in nature; Colbert was just returning the sentiment.
Unfortunately, the Boston Herald, who first reported on the event, has “archived” the articles in it’s pay-per-view section. Nonetheless, here are some links:
The original Boston Herald article-
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=132311
Scalia’s response, as reported by USA Today-
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-29-scalia_x.htm
A follow-up piece in the Herald-
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=132848
does anyone know of a place you can just d/l the videos, instead of having to stream them online?
Balls.
Adrien Brody’s younger brother apparently makes music.
http://www.myspace.com/stephenbrody
My fathers response to the YouTube vids of the event – Years ago the court jester was hired to speak his mind. If the king did
not agree he was out of line to punish the jester. On the other hand many jesters did not live long.
“I’m not saying this about me, because I’m not political at all in my standup, but a lot of comedians have become the new folk singers. They’re the ones that are pointing the finger and saying what is really going on, more so than in music now. I’ll see these peace rallies and it’s still Joan Baez up there singing. Great for her, but sometimes I’m like ‘Where is this generation’s folk singers?’” – Zach Galifianakis
If you think he “bombed’ then you just aren’t paying attention. Silence and awkward laughter means that he hit his target. He wasn’t there to gladhand people, he was there to deliver his satire schtick to be seen on national television, and maybe to wake a few people up to what is actually going on. And for those who think he has a liberal bias, well…when he bashes the so-called liberal media as well, what the heck do you say then?
Stephen Colbert is the f**king best! I keep watching the video over and over.
For those who have never seen Strangers With Candy, check it out now. Stephen Colbert is great as Mr. Noblet.
the laughter was muffled because people in dc are always worried about what the other guy is thinking. i bet a lot of folks in the room were like, “oh shit, this is funny! this is exactly what we’ve all been thinking! but i don’t want to see me laughing, so i’m just going to sit here and politely giggle.”
i love dc, but it sucks to be here sometimes.
that made me feel uncomfortable. especially when he kept looking over and talking directly to W
I would like to second Jason’s comment:
BALLS!
i LOVE this. i kept saying to myself “i can’t believe he’s saying all this!!! two feet from the president!” awesome.
Colbert rocked. The audience was uncomfortable because he ripped them a new one and they knew it. What did they expect? Anyone who watches and understands his show would expect what happened at the dinner.
The press isn’t doing the job they’re supposed to do, so Colbert’s got to do it for them.
whether or not he achieved what he set out to do (offend the administration i guess), the piece just wasn’t that funny! the jokes were tired, and the helen thomas skit went nowhere. i feel like no matter who the audience was, he wouldn’t have gotten many laughs. so yeah, he bombed.
Colbert was brilliant. He did exactly what he does on his show and all of a sudden people are surprised that his conservative pundit act is just schtick???
Myself and everyone I know laughed their asses off at this. But it didn’t make Dana Milbank laugh so it must not have been very funny…
Grant,
Thank you for the links to the Scalia articles. I must have missed that controversy while I was away on spring break.
As for the rest of the speech, I realize that each of the subjects that Colbert brought up was in someway related to events that have happened, but I still believe that the reason that there was little response from the audience because Colbert’s comments were very harsh and bitterly critical; they were not unjustified, just more attacking than was expected by the audience.
Stephen Colbert is my hero.
Everyone knows its a schtick. It took like like two episodes to air before NPR and the Times were praising him for staying in character throughout the entire show blah blah. Everyone gets that, asshole. But, you can only keep up a gimmick like that for so long, and it is getting a little bit worn out. I like Colbert, I do, but he pretty much sucked at the correspondents dinner, plain and simple. I’m sorry if those jokes amused you, because they were BAD JOKES and you must have a BAD sense of humour. HAHHAHAHA
You’re the one who laughs uncontrollably at telling someone that they have a bad sense of humor so you must be funnier than me and Colbert. I’ll bet you’re even as funny as Carrot Top in his prime (AKA: Always!)…
I’ll agree that the Helen Thomas bit was drawn out and pretty lame, but the majority of it was hysterical.
Do people really need Colbert’s act explained to them?
new neil young mp3s- http://poponparade.blogspot.com/
Interesting analysis:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/05/01/colbert/
You may have to click through a brief ad to read it.
I didn’t know Andrew Card frequented Stereogum. Awesome!
I’m not sure what video you are all watching. The one I watched contained hysterical laughing mixed in with the awkward silences and the squirming faces. The Scalia bit was great and suprrisingly he seemed to be taking it with good humor.
It was okay. I think that a lot of people are making it out to be better or braver than it really was just because they agree with it, not because it’s genius. (O, and starting with a “please move your car” joke is just plain bad, whether it’s meant to be “ironic” or not).
Stephen Colbert was hilarious. There were a few duds, but in general very funny. As for the Bush impersonator that somebody linked…not funny, not even close. Humor is obviously a very subjective matter. It’s like who’s funnier David Chapelle or Edgar Bergman and Charlie.
Whether or not you found Stephen funny, he had the balls to look the, arguably, most powerful man in the world in the eye and assert the fact he’s a major douche. What really wasn’t funny was when, in years past, Bush walked around that same room pretending to look under the tables for WMDs. At least I don’t think families of dead soldiers would think so.
BALLS to the moon is all I have to say. He brought up the secret CIA prisons, he mocked him after 9/11 (the one thing many people who despise Bush still admire him for), he even talked about Valerie Plame with them both in the room. It was fucking brilliant. The Helen Thomas Terminator-style chase was a bit much, but still made a very good and relevant point about the lack of interest the press seems to have in going after dangerous subjects, with her often being the only one brave enough to ask the really tough questions. What a brilliant, subversive piece of satire.
Man, even if not all of the jokes were perfect material, he has got gigantic cahones.
GIGANTIC.
I don’t understand why a lot of people are saying the jokes were tired. Granted, we all know Bush’s approval rating is sorry, but why does that mean jokes about it aren’t funny? Besides, i thought the whole “doesn’t that mean 68% approve of the job he’s not doing” take was quite original.
Link to the video as YouTube removed them (claimed copyright infringment…yeah right).
All I can say is Colbert has balls the size of Alpha Centari!! Keep reporting the ‘Truthiness’ (and watch out for those eagles!)
Sorry, the link didn’t post in the last entry.
http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/politics/2006/04/30/colbert_press/
Better material than “Some call you the elite, I call you my base.”
I found a high quality download of Stephen Colbert White house correspondents:
http://files.ww.com/download.html?id=13906
(16 min / 65 Mb Quicktime: top quality!)
Now you can see the expressions on the faces very well:)
Thanx joe! This is a great one…
Whether or not Mr. Colbert was funny enough or funnier or not as funny is well beside the point.
The point is this: under the auspices of polite-ness, the Bush administration and the press had to sit idly by and take a great deal of hassle from a “comedian” who is really functioning as an activist. If this would have been any other forum outside of an upper class black tie event, where no one is ever really brave enough to speak their mind completely, let alone be straight up scathing, Colbert would have been shut down early into his speech.
I agree with the sentiment that comedians are contemporary protest singers. The medium of comedy allows a person to say so much more, without the risk of having to seem sincere. All of our contemporary folk singers are sincerely whiny bitches anyway. Despite the quality of the song, “Blowin’ in the Wind” (or whatever 1960s leftovers) is not going to encapsulate our current problems sufficiently.
Why critique the quality of his routine, when getting to do the routine at all was the biggest victory? Good work, Stephen. You impressed a lot of people for simply having, let’s say it again, balls.
I was really impressed with it. And in my mind Bush and his aides can only blame themselves. I mean really, what exactly were they expecting, a response like the ones that Bush got in his “open town hall meetings”.
Furthermore, Colbert’s show is pure satire, and he is a liberal at heart, you can really tell if you watch the show. He has an “act” of sorts, and during the times were it is just him speaking to the camera he never waivers. Yet when certain guests come on, namely the conversatives, you can see his liberal side come out.
Stephen Colbert is my HERO. To stand merely a couple feet away from Bush and say to him the things no one ever has, this makes me believe there might be some version of justice out there, somewhere. Stephe Colbert is my HERO.
He needs to run for president. There was a time when the people who “ran” were chosen by the people. Not what we have now where virtually every power control freak who thinks god talks to him or her runs on their own because they have “taken” money (I mean campaign contributions) from ignorant fools.
GOD BLESS STEPHEN COLBERT!! Finally someone has the balls and the brains to tell these arrogant power brokers the TRUTH!! I totally agree with the poster above who makes the comparison of todays comics (I would qualify that by saying todays SMARTER comics) being like the folk protest songwriters of the ’60s. Colbert was every bit as on target with his routine as Bob Dylan ever was singing Masters of War. . .
Once again I say GOD BLESS YOU STEPHEN – and THANK YOU from those of us still proud to call ourselves TRUE Progressives and TRUE Liberals!!
Very powerful speech, using satirical humour might’ve softened the blow, maybe not, but it definitely got the point across. The Helen Thomas skit was definitely dragged out too long, but it was funny and Stephen Colbert will go down in history… for his balls.
Just one more reminder of the “coarsening” of America. Sure, you can say derogatory remarks about the President in his presence because, after all, he’s just like you — even if the “you” is a comedian, busboy, or college dropout. Because you have rights, you matter, you’re a somebody… even if you’ve accomplished nothing noteworthy while living at home with your mother for the last twelve years. Sure, the decisions you make in your rent controlled efficiency apartment are on parallel with the President’s, just a little different because you matter, you’re a somebody. The President’s your homeboy.
I believe Stephen Colbert kicked some major ass on that night. GENIUS!! At least SOMEONE has the guts to say it like it is…and in these people´s faces!!!
Anyone who did not think Colbert was hilarious clearly has been brainwashed by Fox. Cheerio.
Stephen skewered the President right and true, but the President is – in addition to being a moron – a lame duck. The people who own him don’t need him anymore, they can afford to see him skewered now.
While I deeply admire what Colbert did , and I’m not the least bit sure I would’ve had similar courage, Bush and his toadies are no longer the issue. The republican scum has two new replacements waiting in the wings for act 2 of the show: Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts, and George Allen, junior Senator from Virginia.
Romney is a Mormon, the dangerously bizarre “christian” cult from Utah, and Allen, the apparently goofy son of a former football coach. These are the clowns to be skewered now, Bush is no longer important. He ushered the two judges to the supreme court and he started an unending American war in the Middle East, and those were his only tasks.
I’ll admit, the man does have the balls he’s always bragged about on the Report.
i’ve seen some people rue the lack of ‘this geneeration’s folk singers’ on these posts. i think what you’re really missing is a visible, vibrant culture of resistance, or truthfully revolution. this is occurring because the machine has become so efficient at co-opting protest and turning it against itself that truely dedicated reformers go underground. you see, the revolution will NOT be televised, or pod-cast, or blogged. because the powerful will co-opt your culture of resistance and use it to sell boxed-sets of recycled audio desolation if it’s readily visible. they will suck the soul out of any genuine alternative sentiment and leave you all to consume the pap. point in case: the ’60′s. i know alot of burned out hippies who shill BMW’s and coke. nice revolution, douche.
and for all its shock value the fact is that the people who pay W’s bills also pay colberts. perhaps he was truely using their own tools (the media et al) for subversive goals, but he apparently does this shit (i don’t have cable) all the time, gets paid for it, and its part of the whole buy colgate and youll score a model madison avenue numbing machine we’ve built. so no matter the intent, it gets co-opted, reconstituted, and pre-packaged for innocuous consumption. and we spin and spin: evolution into revolution into reaction & on & on & on.
the king is dead, long live the king!
Steven Colbert is one of the funniest political comedians of the time. Yes, he gives his speech with a liberal bias and yes, he was making fun of the president…that’s what comedians do. He’s just pointing out what he feels is ridiculous but taking his agreement to the extreme. The nervous laughter was merely people not knowing the “proper” reaction. Remember they are all well-known people scrutinized for their every action. There are alwasy going to be comedians that make fun of this party and that…of this group of people and that group of people. Everyone needs to lighten up. The very fact that people get so upset over comical critisism leads me to believe maybe there is more truth to these jokes and someone is afraid we all might find out.
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