One of the interesting things about watching Colbert Report is trying to work out at what point he (the person, not the character) might genuinely be agreeing with, or at least sympathetic to, a conservative position. I really get the feeling it happens from time to time, but it is just fleeting impressions, and it's hard to know the truth. (I certainly believe he is more mature about politics than Jon Stewart, and is capable of actually liking conservative figures.)
On the other hand, I do think that his episodes this week have been showing a liberal narkiness that is so strong, he is too clearly breaking out of character with too many of his jokes.
This makes today's forthcoming episode especially interesting, to see how he handles the extremely well received Palin speech. Colbert the character should be absolutely swooning. But just how much attack will Colbert the person manage to fit in, and will it come across as sour?
UPDATE: So, how did Colbert go? It's a bit of a mix really, with some jokes working well, and others failing. The first couple of minutes of the following clip are good, then the section about Guiliani fall flat. But, if nothing else, you should watch for the last section, featuring a 21 year old college blogger who had been promoting Sarah Palin. There's a very big laugh to be had there, but not from Stephen:
2 comments:
I got the impression, watching those Saturday Night Live shows you screened some time ago, that the show was actually pro-Republican, and cheerily played into the stereotype of mainstream-media liberal bias for jokes, and to reinforce John McCain's message when he appeared on the show. Just an impression, mind you - I don't know enough about the demographics of the show, but it makes a kind of sense. Maybe its primary audience in the US is amongst the red-conservative states, rather than otherwise.
One imagines that the Daily Show and presumably the Colbert Report - screening out of uber-liberal New York - would be more eager to please Democratic/left-leaning voters than their opponents.
It's probably a good thing that it's hard to tell their politics. Shows that they're more interested in making you laugh than persuading you of the merits of a political position!
Well, there's no doubting at all the politics of the Daily Show. And there's no doubt at all that Colbert is also liberal; it's just that he seems to me to be a more nuanced one than Stewart. (Remember that he is - apparently - a Sunday school teaching Catholic, which at least makes him less of a smart ass about religion than the likes of Stewart.)
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