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Stephen Colbert was hysterical this morning on This Week. George Stephanopolous interviewed the comic who appeared in character to discuss his exploratory committee to become a GOP presidential candidate in South Carolina’s January 21 primary. Watch for the clip from the Super PAC ad saying what presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s experience at Bain Capital would make him if, as he says, corporations are people:
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How Jon Stewart continues to garner more acclaim than Colbert is a real mystery to me. Colbert is consistently able not only to better locate the frame the jokes in current politics and culture, but keep himself in the middle of both. His humor is more sophisticated, his sense of the zeitgeist dead on, and his genuine regard and affection for his guests is often actually moving. All this while Jon Stewart continues his parade of falsetto catch phrases from two years ago, fake titters, and interviews marked by wasted opportunity, and somehow gets all the prizes. This is becoming ridiculous. Colbert’s hysterical (and fantastically important) work on superpacs, for instance, is doing more to edify and entertain audiences than the last three seasons of The Daily Show combined. The man is truly brilliant and his writers are heroes.
And yet I still find myself switching to Letterman’s top 10. Maybe if Colvert’s focus during interviews was on the guest and not himself I wouldn’t find the last 10 minutes of the show to be so boring.
I so agree. Jon Stewart has petered out on so many intreviews. His interview with Donald Rumsfeld was unforgivable. All the crap he’s said about the Bush adm. He finally gets one of the top dogs and he totally puss’d out. I lost alot of respect for him. That and he’s getting more annoying. I stopped watching Daily Show a while ago. Colbert (Silent T!) is the way too go.
I’m glad they’re both around, working hard, and being funny.
Stewart comes from a stand-up background, so like a guitarist, he plays his licks and when he’s backstage he turns it off. Colbert is from improv, and remains in character during his off-program public appearances.
Compare and contrast Stewart visiting O’Reilly with Colbert testifying to Congress.
Different ways to perform and I don’t think saying one way is more noteworthy than another is particularly useful. Or put another way, both men should be getting recognition for the way they execute the great writing they and their teams do.
It’s not a contest.
I don’t get why Colbert’s show gets consistently lower ratings than TDS because as many have pointed out he’s much more clever and funnier than Stewart. I would think that most Daily Show fans would stick around for Colbert, but sadly that’s not the case.
Two reasons, JR:
A) After you watch ONE political satire show, you’re kind of “full”, and don’t really want another dose of the same. (There have been nights when both shows have ended up ( by virtue of covering the same “story of the day”) basically doing variations of the same jokes (also true of the OTHER late-night shows, of course; it’s not plagarism, it’s just the nature of the game).
B)THE DAILY SHOW’s only major timeslot competitor is Conan (who’s not a big draw these days, but does overlap with Stewart and Colbert’s SPECIFIC fanbase- indeed, O’Brien’s show does MUCH better in Canada, where it actually FOLLOWS their shows on the same network, and all three shows basically support each other). By contrast, Colbert goes directly up against not only the last half of O’Brien, but head-to-head with Letterman and Leno- both skew older, but there’s going to be some attrition.
It’s possible Colbert would do better if he switched timeslots with Stewart… but I tend to think his more conceptual humor needs the audience to be warmed up and “in the mood” to work best.It’s a matter of taste which you prefer, but I think Stewart’s straight-up “here’s what stupid things politicians did today” approach has a more mainstream appeal- indeed, it’s just a more specific, detailed descendant of the kind of monologues late-night hosts have been doing since Watergate made doing EXPLICITLY political jokes acceptable to mainstream audiences.
You all realize that Jon Stewart writes for and produces; “The Colbert Report.”
“Busboy” is Jon’s company. Any honor on one of the shows honors both of them. They are NOT in competition.
Best comment ever
Colbert and Stewart and breaths of fresh air in a very stale media. Colbert is just brilliant here.
In addition to one of the quickest minds on television, Colbert is also an extremely gifted and well-rounded performer. Better than Stewart? Yes, he’s much more versatile, while Stewart mostly reflects his background as a stand-up. But there’s room for both and we’re all the benefactors of their state-of-the-art comedy. The level of consistency from each of the two shows is beyond impressive. I don’t think either bests the other in the interview segment. Colbert plays a character, so there’s already built-in access to mine humor within the dialog, but each is brilliant. Now how about giving Stephen a shot at the Oscars?
Ha! This video just gave me the Colbert bump… in my pants.
This douche has just over a million viewers, does anyone real care about his latest stunt? Why does the entertainment press treat him Stewart and Maher like they’re important pundits?
Colbert actually does us a huge service with this latest stunt. He exposes the corruption that is Super Pacs, and by bringing his satirical humor into the political field, he makes it accessible to whole new groups of people that are never informed about politics. You should support him for this.
Colbert hasn’t been funny since Strangers with Candy
I second Anonymous! Takeitoutsidemimi….brilliant analysis. Fantastic comment…spot on.
Colbert may well be the most talented renaissance man since Steve Martin. Though he’s a much better singer than Martin…but wow, have both these guys an amazing amount of talent and intelligence.
And Colbert’s show is so, so much funnier and smarter than The Daily Show. I’ve seen that now for the last 2 – 3 years and it shocks me that, as you wrote, Stewart and his show is still considered better, gets all the acclaim. ( Wyatt Cenac and Olivia Munn and John Hodgeman…omg…uncomfortablly unfunny. Painful.)
I used to love Stewart…but I despise his fake laughter. It’s so obvious that he also even pushes his chair away from his desk. Insincerity at it’s worst.
A thousand cheers for COLBERT!
Better Question: Why do mainstream news networks treat pundits as important?
It never ceases to amaze me that jealous wanna-be’s continue to spew hatred on those who are successful in the entertainment industry. Give it up, wanna-be’s. It’s never going to happen for you.
Stephen Colbert is a comedian, and the other Republican candidates are bad jokes. Pat Paulsen and Andy Kaufman tore down the gates, opened the door, and Colbert has charged through the portal!