Colbert, White House, and Funny

My internet was on the fritz for the past couple of days, making it quite difficult to post various rantings and ravings. It is now back, allowing me to express my thoughts as protected by that beautiful, essential, first and foremost of ammendments. Amen.

Which brings me to tonight's Word: Colbert.

Stephen Colbert is the star of the Colbert Report, a faux news show on Comedy Central in which he mimics to absurdity the blustering and idiotic wing of the Republican Right as often seen on Fox News. His show happens to be damn funny. I mean really, if you have not checked it out, I highly recommend it. (sidenote/preface: yes, i do believe the Democratic Left has an equally idiotic and blustering wing).

Anyway, he (Stephen Colbert) was invited to be the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents Dinner, an annual event where the President tries to prove he's a regular guy with a sense of humor by making fun of himself. In fact the President led off the night with a comedic routine where he had a dialogue with a Bush impersonator. It was pretty predictable -- laughing at his inability to command the English language, and his inability to find WMD's. It got a pretty good reception....the impression one got was of old friends slapping each other on the back. Hahaha, look, our president is an idiot. The jokes are often soft, they lack the barbs of true satire, the sting of sharp humor that raises hackles and draws blood.

And then along comes Colbert.

This was a truly wonderful performance. As John Stewart so eloquently put it: "balls-alicious". Not once did he break character, and through this caricature he managed to lay out in hilarious terms the list of greivances that many Americans have with the President. What I find funny is that the President was not laughing. Seriously -- this is what a "roast" is supposed to be. It can't be the first time he's heard this criticism.....can it? Not only did Colbert never break character while ripping into El Presidente, he also held no punches in socking it to the media as well.

The newspapers are filled with articles on the subject. Mainstream media did not give Colbert much coverage or credit, and the liberal blogosphere pretty much exploded. Now there's a back and forth, and it's become a political issue. To me it's not really a political issue, it's simply one of taste. Seriously. Well I guess there are two reasons the audience might not have found Colbert funny: he was not funny, or he hit too close to the mark. It very well could have been the latter (i rather think it was), but it could have been the former.

I'm not one to judge what another person finds funny or not. That's up to them. I, however, found it damn funny, and courageous to boot. And smart too....I hear his ratings have been through the roof. Anyway, take a look and you can judge for yourself.