Be careful, very careful, about embracing anything Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart or Saturday Night Live or any of the other liberal entertainment media types do.
Sometimes it is very, very funny. Stewart in particular is an equal opportunity mocker, and seems the least malicious of the bunch.
But Chuck Todd is right in this clip addressing Colbert. Colbert is not attacking the system, he is trying to marginalize Republicans (via John Nolte) much in the way Saturday Night Live marginalized Sarah Palin by creating a caricature of her:
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Professor, 100000% agreed with this post.
I remember before 2008, I was a huge fan of SNL because I believed them to be an equal opportunity offender. After 2008, I no longer do. SNL and other lefty shows only had credibility with independents when they believed the lefty shows were going after whoever was in power.
This is not the case, they only go after conservatives/repubs in power. So will lefty idiots like Colbert and SNL go hard after the conservatives and repubs? oh yes. However, how much impact can they have as they are no longer seen as nonpartisan comedy shows?
I know as a recovering democrat I don’t care what these lefty idiots have to say, and I used to love watching these shows just a few years ago.
“…much in the way Saturday Night Live marginalized Sarah Palin by creating a caricature of her…”
Although, in mild defense of SNL, they did also mock the press’ fawning attitude toward Obama during the Democratic primaries and Hillary’s rage at being frustrated. After Obama’s election, there was a screamingly funny (a rare thing on SNL) skit mocking Obama’s trip to China in 2009.
The difference between what SNL does and what Colbert is doing is that Colbert is actively participating in the process he is parodying and thus moving from spectator/critic to player. He’s stepping off the sideline and interfering with the game.
Colbert is more of an embarrassment to SC than Michael Phelps, Miss Teen SC, Jim Clyburn and Alvin Greene all rolled into one. Take it from a South Carolinian…..there is a huge turn in the Newtmentum following the debate performance. We do believe the honey badger is our guy!
Michael Phelps ? The swimmer ? What did he do 7 I thought he was from North Baltimore.
the infamous “bong shot” of Phelps toking down occured here in Columbia at an off-campus frat party.
First of all, Jon Stewart is not funny, much less “very, very funny”. I have yet to see any bit from Stewart that has made me laugh beyond a chuckle here and there. Maybe. Why so many conservatives think he has comedic talent is beyond me. But what I do I know? I never thought SNL was all that funny either.
I was 16 years old when SNL started in 1975 and I spent many a Saturday night suffering thru the torture that show inflicted on us viewers. But you had to watch it because Heaven forbid you missed a funny bit that all the kids would be talking about on Monday. Oh, there were some very funny bits but they were very few, and very far between, and most of the funniest stuff was pre-recorded. Mr. Bill. The fake commercials. Yes, there were some very funny skits but you were lucky if there was 5 minutes of good stuff in a 90 minute show. And you could always count on any funny skit being done to death from thereafter. Ugh. I bet if you added up that entire first season you’d be hard pressed to come up with 15 minutes of funny material. OK, I’ll be generous and give them 20 minutes for Steve Martin.
“Jaynie, you ignorant sl*t!!” – just kidding, of course!!
I beg to differ on your view; Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase (occasionally), Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain….they were very funny. A few examples: the Cone Heads; Julia Child; Samurai Deli; “Cheeseburger, cheeseburger – no Coke, Pepsi” – classics, IMHO.
Even Eddy Murphy’s “Buckwheat” parody and “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” were funny.
Bill Murray? He had some good moments, too.
Today’s SNL is a disaster and embarrasment, but those days had some great skits and funny people!!
I completely agree. It was those classic bits that kept me up watching it. But man oh man, waiting for them was torture. Don’t forget, SNL was 90 minutes back then. It ran from 11:30 to 1AM. The last 20 minutes or so was the musical guest and I used to turn it off at that point because I knew I wouldn’t miss anything. Then Mick Jagger French kissed Keith Richards and I missed it!
You have to remember that all those classic bits were spread out over many episodes. A lot of them were only funny the first time. And I’m sorry, but the diner bit “Cheeseburger, cheeseburger – no Coke, Pepsi” was NEVER funny.
Just think about it. You’re talking about skits spread out over three or four years. There was a lot of crap in between all those gems. (My favorite commercial was “Hey, You” with Gilda Radner. Remember that one? Just thinking about it now makes me laugh.)
I like the Stefon bits on Weekend update. Ever since the 2008 election though, I pretty much stopped watching SNL, Colbert Report and Stewart. It’s still good to watch every now and then to get a flavor of what Liberals are thinking.
I see these “comedians” for what they are, liberals using comedy to bash conservatives. In a way I’m glad for these constant attacks, as it only makes our side and our positions stronger.
Stephen Colbert … I didn’t know Pat Paulson … Pat Paulson was not a friend of mine (I was just a kid at the time) …
… But Stephen Colbert … you are no Pat Paulson.
The elephant in the room that F. Chuck Todd was dancing around was the Sarah Palin “successful” demonization; he should have stated the obvious: “SNL destroyed Sarah Palin using Tina Fey’s false line – ‘And I can see Russia from my house!!’ because the 2008 MSM used that clip as if it were a quote, a FACT.”
Of course, Palin never said that, but the seed was planted. The MSM crossed the line, like Colbert, by playing Tina Fey’s clip on the news, using Tina Fey as reality, as fact.
Todd made the point, but lost the argument by not stating the obvious, as manifested by the successful “parodying” (read: personal destruction) of Sarah Palin in 2008.
You’re right, DRMarie.
The hipster-anarchist-snarkster in my office loved to mutter the “I can see Russia from my house” line.
That is unshakeable fact in their feeble minds.
Ir wouldn’t have worked if the Republicans had stood up for Sarah.
Look what Newt is doing, essentially single-handedly.
The Establishment Republicans betrayed Sarah Palin, let the Left savage her, sort of joined in with effete remonstrances, and left Sarah for dead.
The Establishment Republicans are NOT OUR FRIENDS. What a painful realization.
They aren’t confused. They do it on purpose.
Look at the NRO attack on Newt from– when, last month, December, 2011?
Hysterical, unreasonable, hastily written, ill-thought-out, UNSIGNED … they just got everything they could think of in a late-night session and threw it into the piece.
They could have defended Sarah Palin but THEY don’t like her, either. And they don’t like Newt.
The Establishment Republicans are “hip Leftist” wannabees who stand outside the malt shop wanting to join the quasi-crypto-communist kool-kid Leftists inside, but must forever remain excluded by the R next to their names, and the fact that they have to appease the inconvenient, recalcitrant voters back home who will not re-elect the Establishment Republicans if they go in and order a banana split and finally get to party with the kool crowd.
I support Newt. Together, we can transform this paradigm, take the ridiculous amounts of money out of Washington and return power to local home towns. Would the Republican Establishment enjoy that? Don’t think so.
The sadder part is that is that Americans ditched their own history . They chose ignorance.
Alaska WAS Russia until the Czar sold it to provide a barrier to the then British Empire (Canada ). Months later Canada gained independence.
The Japanese invaded the American Aleutian islands & set up base . American forces had very heavy losses to regain control. These islands are not inconsequential.
A simple google search will/did bring up the facts of the Dolmades islands & as a bonus some wonderful pics.
When you choose willful ignorance out of spite you can never go back home.
The thing that’s so sleazy about Colbert is that he isn’t a comedian telling jokes about what he dislikes; he’s playing a character that purports to believe those ideas.
His entire career is nothing more than a never-ending straw-man argument.
He’s a child, and like a child his attack is based on screaming, “This is you!” and then doing his buffoonery.
I cannot wish enough suffering on him.
[…] I dare say, if Kraut keeps this up…he’s no better than Stephen Colbert. […]
Zombiehero, I KNOW. Nice post, BTW.
[…] Their Scorpion Nature Posted on January 20, 2012 5:30 pm by Bill Quick » Of course Colbert is out to marginalize the Republican Party – Le·gal In·… Be careful, very careful, about embracing anything Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart or Saturday Night […]
IMHO, SNL has not had credibility with anyone older than 14 for two decades.
In any case, the Colbert-Stewart warning is well given. None of these guys will pass up an opportunity to be funny WHILE ALSO belittling Republicans. The same goes for Letterman. Nothing good can come from playing with any of these guys.
They are all cowards hiding behind the ‘innocuousness’ of being ‘only a comedian’ to engage in a political agenda. All of them.
Cobert began as an O’Reilly clone, and was slightly funny. Then, after many viewers thought Cobert’s right-wing rants were right on, he had to start explaining the jokes. And, the shark has been jumped when a comedian has to explain why his material is humorous.
Stewart is not funny. His mock disbelief, the raised eyebrows, the false outrage… there’s a reason no one else tries it for 30 minutes a day, four times a week.
Today’s SNL: Andy Samburg’s pre-taped skits are the only watchable thing on the show.
Stewart is not an “equal opportunity mocker”. It skews heavily to one side, his admitted politics are liberal. He does the other side just enough to be a complete ideologue-ish screed.
However, his influence is greater than Colbert’s, IMO.
And the goal is the constant seeking of the funny one-liner, the SNL “I can see Russia from my house”, and implant in the minds of youth and young-at-heart, to keep them from being open to more serious issue discussions.
Chuck Todd is afraid that they are helping create a new generation even more cynical than their own?
To late.