Jaw dropping the WH correspondents dinner with Steven Colbert??

lostexpectation

Already posted this elsewhere but you gotta see this....

he does straight satire, he rips Bush, he rips the press, its hilarious but the audience is shocked into silence...
watch on cspan video

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/29.html#a8104


he does it so well it turn towards just being not funny.... last night he stunned the audience out of laughing

but Bush also did a bit where his real thoughts were played out by a Bush impersonator as he did his speech.... he really said some harsh things about himself and ended up being funny but creepy you watch both on cpsan....

the impersonator from Leno has never beeen very good....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4959380.stm

Sand

In fairness, its not that funny. Especially by the standards of the Daily Show and the material Colbert is capable of doing.

Samples including McCain: "Hes such a maverick, find out what he used with his meal because it definitly wasnt a salad fork. It was probably a spoon. You can never predict with this guy". Dunno, Ive heard better...

Anyway, isnt there a satire forum for this sort of stuff?

lostexpectation

Sand wrote:

In fairness, its not that funny. Especially by the standards of the Daily Show and the material Colbert is capable of doing.

Samples including McCain: "Hes such a maverick, find out what he used with his meal because it definitly wasnt a salad fork. It was probably a spoon. You can never predict with this guy". Dunno, Ive heard better...

Anyway, isnt there a satire forum for this sort of stuff?

this is political

there are some hit and miss bits but its kills, thats the lead up to the next bit, you know about bob jones university, what mccain is about, what bush did to mccain in 2000?

TheVan

Some of the stuff was excellent. He wasn't trying to just get laughs....he was also trying to make a point to the press.
The bits where he savaged the press for not asking the tough questions and demanding answers were great as was the bit about Scott McLellan!

Some of the jokes were hit and miss but fair play to him for getting up in front of the press and the President and coming out with some of that stuff.

It was comedy with a point and I for one am glad he did it

Manic Moran

TheVan wrote:

Some of the stuff was excellent. He wasn't trying to just get laughs....he was also trying to make a point to the press.

I'm not sure he was trying to get laughs at all. I think I chuckled twice, and that was about it. I found the Bush & Bush routine far funnier.

Credit to his testicles, but I'm not sure it's going to do his long-term career as a bookable comedian any good. It would have been much better had he been scathing and funny at the same time.

NTM

Diarmuid

Manic Moran, you don't get it do you? He was not out for his career but using his one chance to tell things the way they are, what the rest of the people in the room should have been doing for the past 5 years. Bush's routine was the usual laugh along with Bush, look he's a nice down to earth guy hahah.. Colbert was there to say what no one else had the guts to say. Just watch Bush and the audience squirm in their seats. And he was good, really good.
check this out :

"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."


“surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides of the story — the president’s side and the vice president’s side."

I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the No Fact Zone. Fox News, I own the copyright on that term."


"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."

ouch. That last one hurt !!

zuma

Who exactly invited him to this even anyway?

The video is pretty damn funny allright!!

FionnMatthew

Sand wrote:

In fairness, its not that funny. Especially by the standards of the Daily Show and the material Colbert is capable of doing.

Yes, this is what everyone has been saying in the States - this is the most argued about topic on American blogs.

He didn't have to be funny. All he had to do was observe the formalities of a stand-up routine - the letter of the law. Meanwhile he was able to take shots at people who are normally afforded so much 'respect' that they are immune to criticism - like the king in "The Emperor's New Clothes".

It's analogous to the interplay between the Fool and Lear in "King Lear". The only reason he got away with it was because it was under the auspices of what he was supposed to be doing, so that noone could say that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing.

It's just crazy when the voice of sense - or at least the voice of an alternative truth, has to dress itself up as nonsense in order to be heard. But I thought the most ironic thing about it was that he was asked to appear at the dinner - how did that happen? Did nobody watch his show?

Sand

It's just crazy when the voice of sense - or at least the voice of an alternative truth, has to dress itself up as nonsense in order to be heard. But I thought the most ironic thing about it was that he was asked to appear at the dinner - how did that happen? Did nobody watch his show?

Its possible that they simply didnt care? What was he going to do that the Daily Show hasnt already been doing for years? The WH has no problem with controversial humour - wasnt Bush assailed for joking about being unable to find WMDs in Iraq? I guess they figure if they want to get laughs they need to hire a jester whose not associated with them, if only to combat the image of them controlling attendance to this sort of thing. Enter Colbert.

Frederico

Oh come on, they were shocked, everyone was, practically all the culprits were in the room at the same time, its pretty easy to make fun of Bush on tv, not when he's sitting right next to you. I doubt we'll ever see something like that again.