Stephen Colbert roasted the President at the correspondent's dinner. As wasp jerky noted, it didn't look like the President was amused. Colbert got in some real shots. My favorite, besides the "arranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg" and the funny film involving Helen Thomas, was the line that "reality has a well-known liberal bias."
Wasp Jerky also notes that the press seemed uncomfortable too. One review I read had an unnamed source saying "This was anti-Bush. Usually they go back and orth between us [making fun of the press corps]and him." I think that shows just how disconnected the press is from the rest of the world. Colbert did little but make fun of the very news and very President that the rest of us live with. Had the press done its job from the beginning, we might have a different situation.
3 comments:
I agree. It was, as comedians say, a tough crowd. Colbert was brilliant and searing, but not getting the laughs because it was all a little too close to home. If he wasn't zinging the administration, it was the rest of the press in the room. And nobody likes hearing that they aren't doing their job well. I thought Colbert was great. For those who didn't laugh, they either "didn't get it" or didn't want to. I did read one article about the event that made some sense. It said that Colbert is a satirist first and foremost, and satire only works (or is funny, anyway) if the audience shares assumptions. Definitely not the case last night.
Isn't it obvious that these people only think it funny if they are picking on others? They know how to dish it out, but can't take it.
I think colbert is better at getting laughs from ordinary americans than he is at getting laughs from the washington crowd, who might secretly laugh at some of what he says but really wishes that he would stick to
"safe" topics that don't really point out their own shortcomings.
Personally I think Colbert did this country a great service by standing up there and pointing out the obvious to those living in the bubble. I doubt much of it got past their own internal tationalizations, but there is hope that some felt some pangs of shame.
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