I agree that themes throughout the conversation were serious, and would have prepared the audience for what came at the end (and Colbert definitely knows what environmental racism is, and was just doing a good job setting her up). But even so, I feel like Late Night Talk Show audiences almost invariably can’t control themselves from giggling or releasing nervous energy when something intense and unexpected happens. In my 30 years of undergraduate teaching there were only a few topics I was able to introduce to large lecture classes that were powerful and high impact that would produce real, deep, attentative silence. Almost everything else at least a few students would start laughing or wise-cracking to discharge the tension.
It may be that EP came across so intensely in that theater that her seriousness and passion cut through the instinct for some to anticipate that there was going to be some kind of laugh-line or more comic edge to her critique of Trump and Pence-ism. If so, even more testament to what she was able to project - it is one thing to play that to cameras a few feet away, but quite another to blast that out to the back row and the balcony. On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 3:16 PM 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote: > It's hard to know not having been in the room, but I think the discussion > that came before about climate change and environmental racism may have set > the tone. > > I would assume that the environmental topics came up in whatever > pre-interview process the show runs as Colbert seemed to guide things in a > way to help inform the audience and to keep it (relatively) serious. (In > other words, I suspect he knew what environmental racism was and wanted the > audience to learn.) In that way, the tone was more consistent with a late > night interview with an author rather than an entertainer. > > But the mention of Smollett and the attack (which happened early Tuesday > morning) came up in such a way that I'm skeptical it was talked about > beforehand. If Colbert and his producers decided to mention Page's > marriage up top and feint with a short joke so that this could come up > later in the interview in a very personal way for Page, they're really good. > > David > > On Friday, February 1, 2019, 4:26:35 PM EST, PGage <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > It was striking, and rare in that setting to hear the studio audience so > silent. Even at serious moments it seems there are always those who can > inhibit nervous laughter. Made me wonder if either 1) they somehow deleted > audio from the audience feed or 2) knew this was coming and warned them to > keep quiet. > > On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 10:35 AM Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote: > > Lots of mentions on Twitter about Ellen Page's appearance asking for an > end to mistreatment of LGBTQ community. The first I saw was from the Late > Show executive producer. > > https://twitter.com/ChrisLicht/status/1091127095265320961?s=19 > > It was dramatic. The plea comes at the end of her appearance. > > https://youtu.be/ec12JKkrhOo > > -- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
