Stephen Colbert

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Top Ten Videos of 2010: 4. The Colbert Report, “Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat”

January 6, 2011 | 1 comment

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My man Stephen Colbert made it tough on me in 2010, in a good way. He had enough excellent moments to make selecting just one for my top ten feel almost completely arbitrary. I ultimately went with this one, from the December 16th episode of the Report, for the total force of its hypocrisy-bashing. Make sure you watch the whole clip, because he saves the coup de grâce for the last couple of lines.

My inclusion of this video rather than one of Colbert’s more ballyhooed 2010 moments (the previously-mentioned Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and his testimony on behalf of migrant farm workers before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security) may seem counter-intuitive. Taking the satirical brickbat to hypocrites is hardly new for him — in fact, it could be declared as his primary stock in trade since the Report began in 2005. However, Read the rest of this entry »


Top Ten Videos of 2010: 6. The Daily Show, “Male Inequality”

January 2, 2011 | Comment

2010 was a big year for Jon Stewart, and thereby for The Daily Show. I didn’t think Stewart could top the October 30 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear he and Stephen Colbert led, which drew a crowd of over 200,000 to the National Mall in Washington.

billboard

Billboard welcoming RNC attendees to
Minneapolis in 2008
(Photo: Flickr/The Zeppelin)

As it turned out, Stewart outdid himself in December with an impassioned shredding of Senate Republicans’ unconscionable filibuster of the Zadroga Act to provide medical and financial aid to afflicted Ground Zero emergency workers.1

In 2010 The Daily Show also continued to do one of the things it has done brilliantly for several years: point out and mock people who claim to be oppressed, but clearly aren’t. Examples of such people might include certain investment bankers, Christian mega-churches, professional athletes, or many others that generally have it pretty good. In the case of my number six video of 2010, this treatment is given to a richly deserving group: middle-aged white men.2

Samantha Bee, the Daily Show correspodent in this segment, has long been one of my favorites. She had a few things of her own going on in 2010, most notably the publication of her memoir I Know I Am, But What Are You? Her promotion of the book included a wide-ranging interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air and a cute feature piece in the New York Times Magazine. Daily Show video clips featuring her are here; among those that especially crack my shit up are “Shame Parade,” “John McCain’s Air Quotes” (start at about 2:03 into the clip), and “Long Island Wants to Secede.”


Top Ten Videos of 2009: 8. “Learning is Fundamental”

December 15, 2009 | 1 comment

What’s funny about the current economic crisis? At the root of it, nothing. I have spent most of 2009 as one of the who-knows-how-many millions struggling with unemployment and dwindling resources. One side effect of unemployment is that it gives you additional time for pondering (a mixed blessing, to be sure). I’ve periodically wondered whether the crumbling of public education in America is the chicken or the egg (so to speak) relative to our national economic woes… which leads me to number eight on my Casey Kasem-esque video countdown, the Colbert Report clip “The Word: Learning is Fundamental.” Read the rest of this entry »


Sunday Seven: Late-Night Talk Show Hosts

March 1, 2009 | 4 comments

Earlier today I came across a blogger with a weekly feature called The Sunday Seven, wherein each Sunday he posts a question for which there can be up to seven answers. He invites people to leave their answers in his comments field, or post them on their own blogs with a link back to him. I always intend to post more often here at C&B, so I say a random guy named Patrick’s Sunday Seven is as good a reason as any to do so. :)

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Name your seven favorite late-night talk show hosts.

Heh heh… not exactly a matter of earth-shattering importance, is it? Of course, there are plenty of earth-shattering things going on in the news right now without me bringing down the room even more. So here we go: Read the rest of this entry »


Facebook Meme: 25 Things About Me

January 28, 2009 | 11 comments

This little Facebook meme has found its way to me. OK, what am I supposed to do?

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

I’ll do it, and I’ll send it to the friends who tagged me in theirs, but no way am I going to require 25 of my Facebook friends to write lists too. My friends have more important things to do… well, most of them, anyway.

25 Random Things About Me

  1. I am a compulsive copy editor and a remorseless grammar nazi (in case you hadn’t noticed).
  2. I am geeky enough to use HTML markup when posting things on community web sites. In case you still hadn’t noticed.
  3. I’m seriously considering getting a bicycle to use for getting around town, in order to both save money on gas and get more exercise. The only drawback I foresee is the increased chance of severe injury due to LA’s shortage of bike lanes and surplus of reckless drivers.

    4. Read the rest of this entry »


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