Stephen Colbert Bombs
Posted on May 1st, 2006 in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
The web was atwitter yesterday with the notion that President Bush was so offended by Stephen Colbert’s monologue at the White House Correspondents Dinner that he refused to laugh.
Not so.
I happened to not be able to sleep on Saturday night, and so I watched C-Span’s replay of the dinner at around 12:30 AM, and here’s the God’s-honest truth: The reason Bush didn’t laugh is because Colbert wasn’t funny. No one laughed.
Yes, Colbert had a couple close-to-home shots, and I enjoyed it when he mocked the press for its slavish sycophancy to the president. But the truth is, Colbert died up there…
7 Responses
5/1/2024 12:47 pm
Wow, I’m going to have to watch now. I’ve heard the opposite, that he was hilarious and that the reason people weren’t laughing was because they were uncomfortable or shocked, not because it wasn’t funny. I’ve read partial transcripts and it’s good faux-news material, but maybe you’re right and he failed on delivery. Perhaps, though, you’re just not a fan of the new, dry, fake-news humor, Rich? Big difference between making people uncomfortable and “bombing.”
5/1/2024 12:53 pm
It’s interesting—the material actually was good, but somehow Colbert’s delivery was not. (And I say this as a fan of Colbert.)
See for yourself—I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
5/1/2024 10:42 pm
It was the best thing on C-SPAN since Al Franken reduced Bill O’Reilly to jelly and then ate him.
In the sense that those present were not laughing, he “bombed,” and that is certainly the talking point the right would like to promote, even though the reviews are running 100-1 in favor of Colbert and the video is setting download records. Half a million downloads from ONE of the dozens of sites where you can get the video? In ONE DAY?
Colbert bombed in the room, and that was why America loves him now. The best scene in the movie is where Clint Eastwood delivers the morality lecture to the whimpering villain before pulling the trigger. We love to see the villain whimper and we loved watching Bush squirm in the harsh light of a genius with giant cojones looking him in the eye from ten feet away.
Man of the Year for Colbert? A slam dunk, but it doesn’t seem like enough.
5/2/2024 12:49 am
My impressions are to the contrary, Richard. I think it was 1. absolutely hilarious, 2. highly courageous 3. pretty depressing - all at the same time.
Actually, I think the audience found it very funny as well. At the start, they expected a, perhaps midly critical, funny speech - basically colbert playing the clown, there for light entertainment of the crowd.
So ppl took it like that initally and laughed naturally at the jokes. Then when the hard-hitting rubbing-GWB-nose-to-bullshit phase came, it was still just as funny. Except that audience was tame enough to realize that it was not the stuff to laugh at.
5/2/2024 8:39 am
Highly courageous? I think that’s going a bit far. Soldiers who fight in Iraq are highly courageous; slagging the president and the press corp is cheeky.
That said, he just wasn’t funny; his delivery was not quite right, his timing off. Even his video of himself as press secretary didn’t work. (Helen Thomas as scary interlocutor? Unoriginal, not funny.)
I like Stephen Colbert, but I think he exposed his limitations.
5/2/2024 10:34 am
I totally agree with you, Richard.
How is it “courageous” for a comic
to merely do his job? Given this
President’s approval ratings, it’a pretty much a no brainer for Colbert to go in for the kill; fine opportunity to expand the fan base.
5/2/2024 12:33 pm
George Bush is past unqualified. He is beyond inept and stupid. He’s gone to scary - and that just isn’t funny.