the whole colbert thing
May. 1st, 2006 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roneAmidst the fawning of the moonbats and the shrill criticism of the wingnuts over Colbert's performance, the point is lost that satire isn't necessarily funny. I thought Colbert's speech was really well delivered and hit all the spots it wanted. Chutzpah, yes. Courage, no. Biting satire, yes. Funny, rarely. To claim that Colbert "was hilarious" or "bombed" is to misunderstand what he was doing; it wasn't stand-up, it was put-down.
And while one person thinks that "it's a failing prospect to attempt to direct satire at those who are beyond it," i say that perhaps he's confused about who the satire is directed at. While Bush and the media were the subjects of the satire, that doesn't mean that they're the targets. The target is, as always, the American people. (Yes, i know, "But they're beyond satire!" I disagree.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 09:07 pm (UTC)I contend that Colbert's target was not the Bush administration or the American people so much as his target was the White House Press Corps itself, which invited him to entertain them. I think the Press Corps disliked being mocked a lot more than the administration. The administration has the comfortable knowledge that it doesn't matter how many laughs the court jester gets if the King still rules. The press corps, on the other hand, had its own hypocrisy about its sacred mythology rudely rubbed in its collective face. Of course, they weren't laughing— they were the butt of all the jokes.
And they knew it. The administration is beyond satire because they know maintaining their power doesn't depend on suppressing it. On the other hand, the press corps lives and dies on its credibility. They are not beyond satire, and they knew they were on the receiving end of it.
"I have nothing but contempt for these people [the White House Press Corresspondents]." —Steven Colbert, explaining why he wanted to the White House Press Secretary.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-01 09:52 pm (UTC)If I were Peter Pace, on the other hand, I would be PISSED.
That was my take on it, too.
Date: 2006-05-01 10:18 pm (UTC)The press in the US has been pissing its belly for years now.
Re: That was my take on it, too.
Date: 2006-05-01 11:45 pm (UTC)The press is not "beyond satire", not so full of themselves as to be oblivious. Like George Bush, they know when they're being skewered.
Like George Bush, most of them don't have to care.
what was it that Jon Stewart shareed...
Date: 2006-05-02 02:06 am (UTC)back when it was the Tucker Carlson and his boy toy the Bleaters of CIA Assets, before the later took a powder from CNN, and the former decided to take his ButtMonkeyWays off to play the alledged conservative over at MSNBC....
Jon Stewart does CNN (http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2652831)
Re: what was it that Jon Stewart shareed...
Date: 2006-05-02 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 04:15 pm (UTC)why do americans hate america?
Date: 2006-05-02 07:06 pm (UTC)I can understand that the typical person who thought that carlsen and his kriminal friend, remember it was Novak who blew up the CIA network dealing with Iranian Nuclear Proliferation, are the sort of Psuedo Conservatives who populate the NeoCon Movement - because they hate americans who actually served and were actively active in keeping you folks safe.
But of course, to put that back into play, along with the citation of when Jon Stewart Cracked on the Fiasco of the "crossfire" game - and that in the context of the MSM black out on dealing with it's horror from the Colbert stand up - is, gosh, well putting too many things into play for the typical America Hating NeoCon eh no???
Or is that also a part of the problem here.... The NeoCons are so not sure why they hate america, nor why they hate those of us who served while they sat on their faces, but clearly they like to hate america and the veterans community... But that is not really news - we have been watching that routine for over 20 years now... and it is only now that americans are wondering why their system is sinking...
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:05 pm (UTC)Re: what was it that Jon Stewart shareed...
Date: 2006-05-02 07:01 pm (UTC)why do you hate america?
or are you just one more of those who is afraid of dealing with what is going on in america because you actually hope that majikally the great leader will protect you...
Re: what was it that Jon Stewart shareed...
Date: 2006-05-02 01:16 pm (UTC)"Crossfire" went on for far too long. By the end of it, it had made Robert Novak a sneering caricature of what he had once been. It died not because Tucker Carlson lacked credibility as a journalist (which, admittedly, he does), but rather of its own patheticness as a form of entertainment, which is really all that TV news is about any more.
Re: what was it that Jon Stewart shareed...
Date: 2006-05-02 07:00 pm (UTC)Ok... what if you are simply WRONG?
that there IS no need for anything like 'integrity' when one is a Performance Artists, like Tucker Carlsen, or HanoiAnnie Coulter? That all one needs to be is a bleater of the Party Line!
Think about the grand stoopidity of the freaks over at townhall who want to play act as IF they are journalists, while at the same time supporting the folks who want to simply kill journalists because majikally journalists, like the 1st ammendment protections for a free press, are a threat.
So ending comedy shows like CrossFire or any of the other products out there where alledged conservatives are merely blind bleaters of the NeoCon Dogma is all that is required! No matter how much that Dogma rests on Hating America, and Hating those of us who served to keep it freee!!!
Hum???