Stephen Colbert is fantastically talented at comedy acting: energetic, sharp as a tack, probably the only chat show host in the history of television who also happens to be serious enough about religion to teach Sunday School at his Catholic Church, and he has a crack team of writers behind him.
He's also moderately liberal, which means a large slab of the American public (the part that thinks Obama really is a Muslim, and that Trump is the best thing to happen to politics) cannot stand him.
So it doesn't really surprise me that after a strong start, his chat show is now running third in the ratings.
But get this: the lightweight, dumb comedy of Jimmy Fallon is number one. I don't find Fallon offensive, but I fail to see that he has any great talent; and I just don't think his writers come up with great lines. He is, at least, slightly hip with da kids in a way the daggy Jay Leno never was. (I mean, who could believe that he routinely out-rated David Letterman, even when DL was at his peak.)
Yes, it's not just Colbert: late night America doesn't tend to like its chat show hosts to be too smart. But especially at this extremely peculiar time of distressing, spreading stupidity amongst much of the American public, Colbert was always going to have a hard time being the ratings leader.
So that's all by way of preamble to a couple of recent clips from his show that I found amusing:
Yep I agree.
ReplyDeleteHe is quite good.
to good for the yanks to appreciate?
I thought he might be too liberal on social issues for you, homer.
ReplyDeleteHe is but so was John Stewart but that doesn't mean he isn't good.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't talk to Soony if that was the case!