OT: Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/arts/television/25watc.html?pagewanted=pri
nt
There was never much chance that Stephen Colbert would bungle his own show.
Mainly, there were concerns that the "The Colbert Report" (pronounced with a
French accent, as in ra-PORE) would turn out to be the Double-Stuf Oreo of
Comedy Central - too much of a good thing.
It's not.
If anything, after one week, Mr. Colbert's half-hour sendup of cable news
commentators already suggests that "Saturday Night Live" has outlived its
usefulness - or at least is in need of a shake-up. When a comedian from "The
Daily Show With Jon Stewart" has a big enough following to warrant his own
spinoff, it may be time to renovate NBC's 30-year-old comedy show. Even last
Saturday, when Tina Fey, the head writer, was back at the "Weekend Update"
anchor desk after her maternity leave, most of the political jokes were as
labored and predictable as the comedy skits.
Yet young people increasingly rely on comedy, and particularly "The Daily
Show," as their main source of news. That could explain why nowadays
breakout stars like Steve Carell come from Comedy Central and not "Saturday
Night Live," as they did in the days of Mike Myers and Adam Sandler. Humor
has moved away from long, one-joke skits and wacky impersonations to jujitsu
satire: using the glib complacency of television news against itself.
And some of the best material on Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert's shows lies in
their sadistic use of snippets from real newscasts and political speeches.
On Thursday, Mr. Colbert showed a montage of alarmed reports about the avian
flu epidemic on CNN, C-Span and MSNBC, then showed a more upbeat Fox News
headline: "Bird is the word on the street. Why the avian flu could send
stocks soaring."
Mr. Colbert praised Fox News for always finding something positive in bad
news, be it about the Bush administration or the nation. "Every global
pandemic has a silver lining," he said approvingly. "Remember, the Medici
made their money investing in the bubonic plague. A lot of people did. Until
the boil burst."
Even though Mr. Colbert stays in character - a smug, bombastic and
ultrapatriotic cable news commentator - he packs more wit and acid
commentary in 22 minutes of his one-man show than multiple skits by the
entire cast of "SNL." On his regular feature "The Word," Mr. Colbert
routinely mocks the kind of anti-intellectual populism perfected by Fox
News. "Trustiness" was his word of the day, he told viewers with a poker
face, sneering at the "wordanistas over at Webster's" who might refute its
existence. "I don't trust books," he explained. "They're all fact and no
heart."
"SNL's" Darrell Hammond is still an amazingly gifted impersonator who can
mimic anyone from Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney to Aaron Brown, but the
writing is rarely as clever as his performance.
The premiere of "The Colbert Report," which featured a gravitas face-off
between Mr. Colbert and Stone Phillips of "Dateline NBC," provided a
quickened pace and a refreshing change of tone. The faux anchor and his
guest took turns delivering absurd selections from news scripts with
straight faces. ("We invited Mother Teresa to respond to these charges.")
Not all the shows that followed were as funny; last Wednesday night's
interview with the columnist Fareed Zakaria fell a little flat. But as first
weeks go, Mr. Colbert more than held his own. ("The Colbert Report" is shown
at 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.) His sendup of the Bill O'Reilly/Joe
Scarborough/Aaron Brown persona is very funny, as are the show's Fox
News-ish graphics of swirling American flags and screeching eagles. But what
puts Mr. Colbert over the top is that he is not just impersonating well
known television personalities, he also uses parody to score larger points
about politics and the press.
On Tuesday night, he asked "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl about the
Valerie Plame scandal and listened blankly as she likened the White House
leak of a C.I.A. agent's identity to Watergate.
"What is the big deal about this particular case?" he asked Ms. Stahl with
mock indignation. "I mean, all that they are saying is that somebody in the
White House had to do what they had to do to get the war they wanted."
Some of the wordless jokes are just as dead-on, from the show's graphics to
Mr. Colbert's way of greeting his daily guest. Instead of having the visitor
sashay onto the set before an applauding studio audience, Mr. Colbert rises
from his desk and does his own victory lap over to a corner table where the
guest is kept waiting in the dark.
So far, there have not been any regular co-stars to fill out the show, but
Mr. Colbert has woven in some hit-and-run surprises. After showing a clip of
Fox News anchor Juliet Huddy warbling Lisa Loeb's song "Stay," Mr. Colbert
tried to sing it too, then turned and asked Ms. Loeb, waiting in the wings
with a guitar, how the lyrics go. She sang a few bars, he thanked her, and
went on with his newscast.
Mr. Colbert's on-camera persona may not wear well over the long term, but
for now at least "The Colbert Report" is a worthy spinoff, an icy-cold beer
chaser to the shot of whiskey that is "The Daily Show."
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