A part of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show fake news circuit, Colbert hams it up four nights a week on The Colbert Report as a fact-hating, bear-loathing, liberal-despising, megalomaniac of a TV pundit. On Saturday night, he chose to remain in character as he expressed his love for the president with whom, he said, he had a lot in common.
“We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol,” he explained. “We're not members of the ‘fact-inista.’ We go straight from the gut, right sir? That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say I did look it up, and that's not true. But that's because you looked it up in a book.”
A little later he offered a twist on what he calls his “neo-neocon” beliefs – “I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”
Jaws dropped and the smile slowly slid off the president’s face as the room laughed a bit uncomfortably. They didn’t show Mark Smith’s face but I think that’s because he was hiding under the table. Colbert went on, “I believe in this president. Now, I know there's some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in ‘reality.’ And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
By this time, the crowd nearest the President had apparently noticed that the leader of the free world didn’t find his admirer nearly as funny or charming as his doppelganger referring to his wife as “caliente.” The air grew thicker and the chuckles fainter even as Colbert calmly forged ahead on other topics, making this the one must-see moment in C-Span history.
“Fox News,” Colbert then pointed out, “Gives you both sides of every story, the President's side and the Vice President's side.” But he was disappointed in the rest of them. “Over the last five years, you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew. But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions, he's the decider. The Press Secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
Terrific and timely Amrita, thanks!
2 - grayday101
You think they really didn't know who they booked?
I will cherish those few painful moments forever.
Speak truthiness to power forever, Stephen!
Just hope he isn't broadcasting from Canada in future...
3 - Bonnie
Great review, Amrita. You leave me wishing that I'd seen it for myself.
4 - stickdog
Click the URL under my name to see the entire Colbert performance on youtube.com.
5 - lezlie
great article! thanks!
6 - RedTard
That's exactly what everyone on the right has come to expect from the liberal media. Those people control you like lemmings and you love it.
No wonder 5 of the 6 greatest genocides in history have been committed by leftists, you guys work yourselves up into a frenzy of blind hate which I find totally revolting.
7 - glamberson
Wonderful. This was such a great performance, and it is shameful how it is being ignored.
8 - ss
re comment #6
Steven Colbert is personally responsible for five of the six greatest genocides in history? The man I once called Lincolnish?
He's dead to me.
9 - agnostic-1
Superb analysis. You kicked it right in the gonads, something Colbert has an abundance of, while the correspondents in attendence have lost theirs in the aftermath of 9/11
If only the cameras had covered the presidential facial responses with a closer shot. That, too, would have been priceless.
Do you really believe that the outgoing president, Mark Smith, had no clue about Colbert? Or that he simply pled ignorance in honor of the White House guests? After all, willful ignorance is what they practice over there.
No, Smith knew precisely what he was doing. By pimping the main stream media as much as the oafish, war-mongering president with whom we now suffer, Smith started something good. He got the press corpse to wake up from the dead.
10 - Dave Nalle
Glamberson, the White House Correspondents dinner never gets any coverage. And it always has someone speaking who takes the president to task. I'm sure he's used to it by now. I also doubt it was a surprise at all, since Colbert regularly does the same schtick on his show 3 times a week.
The truth is that his jibes were relatively mild and of the sort which the president has taken in stride before. In fact, they're rather similar to the kind of self-deprecating humor the president himself uses on a regular basis.
Dave
11 - Aaron Barlow
Thanks. Now here's a question: why was this not considered newsworthy by most of the media?
12 - Dave Nalle
The serious newsmedia doesn't like to cover itself, and that's a good thing. It leads to the horrible incestuous back-patting we saw recently with the Katie Couric career move.
And the Correspondents Dinner is a relatively inside-affair and I suspec they'd rather not have it over exposed.
Dave
13 - Matthew T. Sussman
The best line was the Valerie Plame joke. The sketch at the end was rather drawn out. And yes I heard some of those other jokes already.
14 - de thoth
that'd be dais, hon..
spellcheck take the "day off" ?
15 - scavok
This story is under-reported because the beltway media does not like being told, to their faces, that they are not doing their job and are complicit with this administration in its crimes.
16 - Amrita
Hey everybody - thanks for reading! To answer the most frequently asked question about Smith and how much he knew - I dont know. :)
On the one hand, he appears pretty clueless. In the weeks before he was puffing off the fact that colbert was making an appearance but one got the feeling that he'd just watched a few shows once Colbert's name was brought up to familiarize himself with the man. Then he said he didnt know about the truthiness fiasco. But on the other hand he was pretty quick to dump all responsibility on Scully. Click the first link in the article for the interview he gave.
@ RedTard - why do I get the feeling that you're not what you seem? Anyhoo, Colbert is one of those interestingly placed people - he says he was never especially political before he started working with Jon Stewart and since he began his show [which is hilariously based on "Papa Bear Bill O'Reilly"] he has managed to confuse people on both the right and the left as to his political leanings. In fact, one commentator on another blog mentioned that this was the first time he could definitively make out Colbert's side of the fence.
@ Dave Nalle - I agree that the guest speaker always ribs the President. But if you see the tapes you can clearly see Bush go from a "whatever" grin to a "Oh no you didnt" grim. Pretty funny even with awkward camera angles I thought - but that's just me. However, according to Editor & Publisher, the one org that actually reported it, several people on the condition of anonymity felt the burn on the President's behalf and thought it was more than a joke. And the President himself couldnt wait to get out of the room.
@ Aaron Barlow - I dont agree with Dave that the news media hates to report on itself. I think most of them have no idea how to report it. can they go after him for being "partisan" when he does it every day on his show and everyone applauds him for his satire [which stretches to the right and left btw] safe in the knowledge that only 1 million or so people watch him compared to the millions who tune in to such blowhards as Anderson Cooper and Bill O'Reilly? And I dont think they can applaud him because - well, he made them uncomfortable. Really REALLY uncomfortable. Like leap off the screen of my TV uncomfortable. If you get C-Span check if they're re-airing it and see for yourself. I dont think the net videos adequately convey the awkwardness you could see on TV.
@ de thoth - thank you! Its not my spell check, its entirely my sloppiness.
17 - Thank you Stephen
http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/
18 - El Bicho
Red, that's absolutely ridiculous. The room was filled with the liberal media and there was more gasps and uncomfortableness than laughs. If your theory was correct, there would have been whooping it up to embarrass and humiliate the President even more, but I wouldn't want facts to get in the way of your truthiness.
Dave, I watch these regularly. The speaker does usually take the President and the press to task, but everyone is usually laughing. Jay Leno and Darrell Hammond didn't make the room this awkward. The President didn't seem amused at all based on the cutaways. I haven't seen it so uncomfortable since Don Imus. I also disagree that the serious media doesn't like to cover itself.
I thought Colbert was amusing, laughed out loud a couple of times, but had heard some jokes from his show. The video went on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, very anti-climactic.
19 - JELIEL³
I put the videos up on my blog if anyone wants to watch it.
I thought he hit where it hurts and at least someone had the balls to do it. It felt more like a huge critique than a skit or humor. Much needed sarcastic bitch slapping was handed out and it had to be Colbert to do it. (Either him or The Pundit Show killer Stewart)
20 - zingzing
yeah, dave, bush constantly claims responsibility for the plame thing and likes to talk about how iraq's government is less than effective. yes, yes. reminds me of his self-deprecating humor, yes. mmhmm. bullshit.
21 - Phillip Winn
Stephen Colbert is hilarious, and his performance at the dinner was no exception (though the video went on too long), but Bush didn't seem put out from what I could see.
All in all, this seems to be a tempest in a teacup. People need to watch a few more of these before getting too excited.
22 - Pat Riot
Hey Red Tard!
5 of the Greatest 5 Democracies have been started by leftists (including the one you so luckily live in)!
23 - Michael J. West
No wonder 5 of the 6 greatest genocides in history have been committed by leftists, you guys work yourselves up into a frenzy of blind hate which I find totally revolting.
Yeah. You certainly wouldn't be caught DEAD in a frenzy of blind hate. Obviously.
24 - RedTard
"5 of the Greatest 5 Democracies have been started by leftists"
You guys love democracy especially when there's only one party-one choice. I doubt most of the founding fathers of this country would get anywhere near the modern left, too much distrust of big government, but that's an academic debate. And yes, I am lucky to live here where the government is currently unable to shut me up.
"You certainly wouldn't be caught DEAD in a frenzy of blind hate."
I hope not.
25 - Michael J. West
What do you think Comment 6 was?