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The Colbert Report

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The Colbert Report
Logo of The Colbert Report
Logo of The Colbert Report
The Colbert Report logo
Created byStephen Colbert
Ben Karlin
Jon Stewart
StarringStephen Colbert
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes143 (as of September 12, 2006)
Production
Running time22 minutes
Original release
NetworkComedy Central
ReleaseOctober 17, 2005 –
Present

The Colbert Report (pronounced /koʊl.ˈbɛɹ ɹə.ˈpɔɹ/), is an Emmy Award-nominated American satirical television program on Comedy Central that stars Stephen Colbert, best known previously as a correspondent for The Daily Show. The show continues the Stephen Colbert correspondent character from The Daily Show, but in a different context — a direct parody of political pundit programs, especially those regarded as having a conservative bias. Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor is especially parodied by Colbert, and he frequently refers to Bill O'Reilly as "Papa Bear".[1][2]

The Report airs following The Daily Show at 11:30 p.m. ET and PT, Monday through Thursday.

Production

Origin

File:Thecolbertgang.jpg
Colbert on "The Colbert Gang"

Comedy Central in 2005 announced The Colbert Report as part of a lineup where they hope to "Keep the viewers attracted by The Daily Show to keep watching late into the night". Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Ben Karlin (The Daily Show's executive producer) supposedly came up with the idea for the show after watching coverage of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Bill O'Reilly. Jon Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions, developed the Report. Colbert, Stewart, and Karlin pitched the idea of the show (reportedly with one sentence: "Our version of The O'Reilly Factor with Stephen Colbert") to Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, who agreed to run the show for eight weeks without first creating a pilot. [3]

The Colbert Report first appeared in the form of three fake commercials for itself that aired several times on The Daily Show, although the themes that would form the basis for the Report can be seen in some of the earlier bits performed by Colbert. The show debuted October 17, 2005, for an eight-week run under its initial contract. On November 2, 2005 based on the strong ratings for the show's first two weeks, Comedy Central and Colbert announced they had signed for an additional year, through the end of 2006.[4]

Before hosting The Colbert Report, Colbert was the host of a fictional "Sunday morning chat show," The Colbert Gang, a parody of the CNN program The Capital Gang which appeared in a segment called "Corporate Slogans" on the Daily Show. The sketch featured bluescreen subliminal messages similar to the style of "The Wørd". [5]

Program format

File:Colbert eagle sequence.jpg
A computer generated eagle, Liberty, swoops in on the viewer in the intro to The Colbert Report

Typically, Colbert starts each episode with teasers for the show's topics and guest, followed by a dominant verbal metaphor for the way he intends to plug the show. (For example, using a football metaphor: "Go out ten yards and button-hook to the left. I'm going to hit you with a perfect spiral of the truth. This is The Colbert Report.") Then the show's opening titles sequence kicks off, with images of flag waving, Colbert striking poses and words describing Colbert flying by. Originally, the last word to fly past Colbert was "grippy", but it has changed to "megamerican", "lincolnish", and, more recently, "superstantial". One of the words behind Colbert is "feckless" which can be defined as "generally incompetent and ineffective" or "not fit to assume responsibility". This appears to be an inside joke of the show, revealing its intentions to mock those unworthy to be in positions of authority.

The general flow of segments after the opening titles is:

  • The initial run-through of the day's headlines, similar to The Daily Show but with a pseudo-right-wing spin;
  • "The Wørd" (sic), which juxtaposes Colbert's commentary with ironic bullet points on-screen;
  • A middle segment that varies;
  • An interview with a guest, who is initially kept in the background, while the camera focuses on Colbert as he does a victory trot through the studio;
  • A closing statement by Colbert, occasionally accompanied by a new item placed on his bookshelf.

The set ('The Eagle's Nest')

File:Colbert report.jpg
Colbert on the set of The Colbert Report.

The studio in which The Colbert Report is taped, which Colbert refers to as the Eagle's Nest, was used for The Daily Show before the show was moved in July 2005 to a new location and reflects the self-aggrandizing nature of Colbert's character, including:

  • Colbert often points out his Emmy and Peabody Awards (from The Daily Show) located on a mantelpiece behind his guest interview area. This is a reference to Bill O'Reilly, who claimed in 2000 that his previous show, Inside Edition, had won two Peabodys. In fact it had won one George Polk Award in 1996 – after O'Reilly had left the show. [6]
  • Colbert sometimes stands next to a portrait that depicts him standing next to another portrait of himself.
  • Colbert's desk viewed from above is a large "C".

Overall, the design of the set mocks the tendency of some media, particularly Fox News, to prominently feature patriotic symbols, imagery, and colors of the United States. Aside from the opening titles sequence described above, the graphics used throughout the show and the studio itself are saturated with American flags (including the official Colbert Report flag, named "Flagsworth") and other patriotic imagery, including an eagle's nest prop placed to the side of Colbert's desk and Bald Eagles shown in many places throughout the show. The scene outside the "window" behind the interview area shows the points of the Statue of Liberty's crown in the foreground and her torch jutting away from the window over New York, implying that the studio is located in the crown of the statue.

In an interview with The A.V. Club, Colbert explained that much of the design for his set was based on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. "All the architecture of that room points at Jesus' head, the entire room is a halo", Colbert said. "On the set, I'd like the lines of the set to converge on my head. And so if you look at the design, it all does, it all points at my head...there's a sort of sun-god burst quality about the set around me."[7]

'Stephen Colbert' character

Main article: Stephen Colbert (character)

Interviews

Colbert interviews a guest on each episode. As a satire of other talk shows, Colbert will walk, flip, jump, summersault, and/or otherwise "cheerlead" his way to a separate interview set where the guest is already seated, indulging in audience applause along the way. When interviewing guests with whom he disagrees, Colbert attempts to "nail" them by using various rhetorical devices to prove them wrong. When interviewing guests with whom he agrees, Colbert's interviewing style is gregarious, often spiraling into hyperbole for comedic effect.

The first guest on the show was Stone Phillips, who returned on June 5, 2006 as the guest of the Colbert Report's 100th episode, becoming the first repeat guest. Colbert and Phillips then held a "Gravitas-Off", a rematch of their popular contest from the first show.

On July 12, 2006, Mort Zuckerman, who had recently been placed "On Notice," became the first guest to be removed from the On Notice board by accepting Colbert's challenge to come on the show within 60 days of being placed on the board. Zuckerman apologized, and Colbert removed his name from the board at the end of the show.

Motifs (Recurring Themes)

Main article: The Colbert Report recurring elements

The Colbert Report presents various recurring themes that help define both the show and the title character. For example, Colbert is a shameless self-promoter who plugs his book and charitable foundation, and who petitions to have notable animals, places, and structures named in his honor. Other themes include Stephen's distrust of books, anger towards Democrats, search for a new black friend, and a general phobia of bears. The bear phobia is apparently a reference to Colbert's voice-acting for "Phil Ken Sebben" on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, who also has a stigma against bears. He has also mentioned a recurring childhood nightmare about bears.

Truthiness

Main article: Truthiness
File:Colbert-truthiness.jpg
Stephen Colbert announces that "The WØRD" of the night is "truthiness", during the premiere episode of The Colbert Report.

In "The WØRD" on the first episode of the Report, Colbert featured the term "truthiness", which he defined as "The quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination". In December 2005, the New York Times selected "truthiness" as one of nine words that captured the zeitgeist of the year, and in January 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that "truthiness" was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year.[8] On August 27, 2006, the Global Language Monitor in an unprecedented move named two words from the same show – "truthiness" and "wikiality" – both coined by Colbert, as the top television buzzwords of 2006.[9][10]

Colbert has since made frequent reference to the widespread influence of "truthiness" since he introduced it, while carping on media accounts of "truthiness" that neglect to identify him as its source. Truthiness has since been discussed, several times in many cases, in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Editor & Publisher, Salon, The Huffington Post, ABC NewsRadio's Word Watch with Kel Richards and Chicago Reader, and on ABC's Nightline, CBS's 60 Minutes, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In January 2006, "truthiness" was featured as a Word of the Week by the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary.

Relation to The O'Reilly Factor

For the most part, the Stephen Colbert character and The Colbert Report are parodies of Bill O'Reilly and his The O'Reilly Factor. New episodes of The Colbert Report are scheduled in the same time slot as rebroadcasts of The O'Reilly Factor while Colbert rebroadcasts are scheduled during new O'Reilly shows. [11]

Colbert refers to O'Reilly as his mentor and affectionately calls him "Papa Bear" — a nickname with an ironic double-meaning, as Colbert calls bears the number-one threat to U.S. national security.

File:The Colbert Report.jpg
A Colbert Report picture

When O'Reilly appeared on The Daily Show before the second episode of The Colbert Report aired, he began by commenting on the Report: "Before we get started, somebody told me walking in here, you got some French guy on after you making fun of me?" In a subsequent Newsweek interview, O'Reilly said that he "feels it's a compliment" to have Colbert parody him because Colbert "isn't mean-spirited" and does not "use [his] platform to injure people".[12] In an open reply on-air, Colbert later said: "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist." In another episode, Colbert said that imitation is a sincere form of flattery, and adds he is "flattered by Bill O'Reilly's imitation" of him.

The Colbert Report directly parodies The O'Reilly Factor with a commentary segment called "The Wørd", similar to O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo". Like "the Memo", "The Wørd" features Colbert asserting a political point of view with a text screen graphic next to him. However, while O'Reilly's text serves to emphasize his points, Colbert's generally serve to provide an ironic counterpoint to his character's position. Also, Colbert's "No Fact Zone" is clearly inspired by O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone".

Colbert often refers to his fake novel, Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure, which follows the adventures of a character based on Colbert himself. The novel is a satirical reference to Bill O'Reilly’s thriller Those Who Trespass; some reviewers claim that both the hero, an Irish-American cop from Long Island, and the villain, a no-nonsense television journalist, are versions of O'Reilly himself.[13]

Hungarian bridge campaign

Main article: Northern M0 Danube bridge
File:Colbert-zrinyi.jpg
Colbert calls "16th century Hungarian leader Nicholas Zrinyi" an "asshole," using a graphic of his great-grandson.

In 2006, the Ministry of Transport of Hungary launched an online call for public suggestions to name a future motorway bridge over the Danube, just north of Budapest. Ministry officials said the Hungarian Geographical Name Committee would choose from among the three submitted candidates with the most votes, plus suggestions from "local governments, cartographers, linguists and other experts,"[14]. Users offered hundreds of suggestions, among them "The 'You Can Go To Bratislava But Not Through This' Bridge" and "Chuck Norris Bridge," which led the polling for some time. Colbert noted the effort with approval in his "Tip of the hat, wag of the finger" segment on August 9.[15] He said Norris' "Walker, Texas Ranger" character had been retired too long to be considered as a namesake for the bridge; Colbert suggested the bridge be named for himself instead. He displayed and read - with Hungarian pronunciation - the website address and urged the viewers to go and cast their votes for him.

The following week, Colbert reported that his name had received only 1,774 votes, and he urged people to vote and explained how to navigate the Hungarian-only website.[16] The next night, August 16, he reported his tally had jumped to 438,049 votes, but still trailed Miklós Zrínyi, who had more than two million votes.[17] Colbert added a link to the poll from the website ColbertNation.com.

On August 22, Hungarian news sites reported Colbert had won the first round of voting with 17,231,724 votes.[18] That night, Colbert called off his voters.[19] He also noted that Hungary had changed the voting rules after the members of the Colbert Nation Forums developed a bot to stuff the ballot box (as had Chuck Norris partisans). For the second phase, registration was required to cast a vote. Colbert also offered apologies,[19] spending a segment honoring Hungary, its history and its contributions to the world.[20]

On September 14, Colbert announced on his show, with the aid of the Hungarian ambassador to America András Simonyi, that he had won the final round of voting. Simonyi presented Colbert with documents officially recognizing his victory. However, it was noted that for the bridge to bear his name, Colbert would have to be dead. The ambassador jokingly hinted that the bridge may still be named after Colbert.

Reception

The Colbert Report drew an unusual amount of media anticipation prior to its premiere, including from The New Yorker, NPR's All Things Considered and Fresh Air, CNN, and The Washington Post. The New York Times alone ran three articles on the Report before its debut, and has made repeated references to The Colbert Report since then.[21] For example, Maureen Dowd alluded to Colbert's "Dead To Me" board as a metaphor in her column, saying that Oprah Winfrey "should take a page from Stephen Colbert and put the slippery James Frey on her 'Dead to me' list".[22]

The Colbert Report drew 1.13 million viewers for its premiere episode, 47% higher than the average for that time slot over the previous four weeks and a full 98% of the viewership of The Daily Show, which itself has Comedy Central's second-largest viewership, behind South Park.[23] Further, in 2006, the first year of the Report's eligibility, Colbert's show was nominated for four Emmys (as of August 27), including nominations for the show itself and for Colbert as host.

Averaged over its opening week, the Report had 1.2 million viewers per episode, more than double the average for the same time the previous year, when the time slot was occupied by Too Late with Adam Carolla. The premiere week of The Colbert Report also coincided with the second-highest-rated week of The Daily Show, behind the week leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.[24]

Presented as non-satirical journalism

Huffington Post

In May, 2006, a fake "guest" columnist on the political news site Huffington Post filed a satirical story which pretended to criticize Colbert's journalistic style and questioned "why this Republican pundit Colbert is on Comedy Central". The site subsequently issued a fake apology for the satirical article, which pretended to fail at recognizing The Colbert Report as satirical. The underlying joke, which was lost amongst many readers and visitors, was that the "guest" columnist was actually a regular columnist, Bob Cesca, who occupied the faux handle of 'GOTTERDAMMERUNG' while he "travelled." Bob Cesca also gave the imaginary GOTTERDAMMERUNG a fake "first book" named Blogging My Cat While He Poops On Bush: An Empirical Political Analysis of The Radical Right's Christofascist Agenda. Image of the nonexistent book.

Also in May 2006, the Tom DeLay Legal Defense Trust posted a video of The Colbert Report on its website and sent out a mass email urging DeLay supporters to watch how "Hollywood liberal" Robert Greenwald "crashed and burned... when promoting his new attack on Tom DeLay." [25] The video features Colbert asking questions such as "Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?" [26] The Trust's email describes its content as "the truth behind Liberal Hollywood's" film about DeLay, and characterizes the Colbert Report clip with the headline, "Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie".

On June 8, 2006, Colbert retaliated on his show by conducting an "Exclusive Fake Interview" with DeLay. It was done by splicing three different interviews with DeLay on different networks to put him in a bad light. Colbert ended the "interview" by saying "I do hope you enjoyed my manipulation of your words".

Robert Wexler

On July 25, 2006, Colbert took to task some television network morning news shows – specifically NBC's The Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America – for taking out of context comments made by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler on The Colbert Report (e.g., "I enjoy cocaine because it's a fun thing to do"). Wexler had made the comments in response to a suggestion by Colbert to "say some things that would really lose the election for you if you were contested." As of the show's airing, Wexler was running for re-election unopposed. In a rare moment, Colbert broke character to say that Wexler "didn't mean a thing he was saying. He knew it was a joke, and he was confident enough to play along."

Awards

In 2006, The Colbert Report was nominated for 4 Emmys, 1 more than its parent, The Daily Show.[1] Despite this, The Colbert Report lost two of its Emmy opportunities to The Daily Show. He also lost Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program to Barry Manilow (who was nominated for a PBS special), as an in-character Colbert angrily noted while presenting an Emmy later that night.

  • Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program, Episode #110
  • Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program, Stephen Colbert
  • Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
  • Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program

Additionally, the show was nominated for two Television Critics Association Awards.[2]

  • Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy, Stephen Colbert
  • Outstanding New Program of the Year

The Colbert Report was also nominated for two Satellite Awards.[3]

  • Outstanding Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical, Stephen Colbert
  • Outstanding Television Series, Comedy or Musical
  • Comedy Network's Number 2 Tv Show (number 1 being The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)

Other honors

  • On March 29, 2006, Colbert announced that he had been contacted by representatives of the San Francisco Zoo seeking his permission to name a then unhatched bald eagle after him. The eagle, affectionately dubbed "Stephen Jr." on the Report, was hatched to be reintroduced into the wild as a part of the zoo's California Bald Eagle Breeding Program. Colbert celebrated its birth on-air on April 17, 2006, and updates on the bird's development have been featured on the show since. [4] The eagle was released later on and migrated to British Columbia, Canada which made for an interesting report on the show in which Stephen exclaimed that his "son" was a draft-dodger and, with his voice cracking, demanded that Canada give him back.
  • Colbert received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Knox College; his credit as producer has been listed since that time as "Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A."

See also

References

  1. ^ Lemann, Nicholas (March 20, 2006). "Bill O'Reilly's baroque period". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2006-07-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Rabin, Nathan (January 25, 2006). "Stephen Colbert interview". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Levin, Gary. First 'Stewart,' now 'Colbert', USA Today, 10/13/2005. Retrieved on 2006 08-01.
  4. ^ Amter, Charlie (2005). "Comedy Central Keeps Colbert". E! Online News. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ The Daily Show. "Corporate Slogans".
  6. ^ http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/prev/prev96.html
  7. ^ "Stephen Colbert Interviewed by Nathan Rabin". 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ "Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year by American Dialect Society" (PDF). 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ ""Truthiness," "Wikiality" named TV words of year". Reuters. August 27, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
  10. ^ "'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top Television Buzzwords of 2006 Followed by 'Katrina', 'Katie,' and 'Dr. McDreamy'". Global Language Monitor. August 27, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
  11. ^ Lemann, Nicholas (2006-03-20). "Fear Factor" (Free). The New Yorker. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
  12. ^ Peyser, Marc (2006-02-13). "The Truthiness Teller". Newsweek. Retrieved 2006-03-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Hastings, Michael (2004-02-17). ""Those Who Trespass" by Bill O'Reilly". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Chuck Norris leads vote for Budapest bridge name". Yahoo News. August 1 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ gdo01 (2006-08-09). "Colbert Report - Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger" (Video). Youtube.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ johnxpriest (2006-08-16). "HowTo vote for Stephen Colbert híd" (Video). Youtube.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ rasier (2006-08-16). "Stephen Colbert Bridge Voting Info UPDATE" (Video). Youtube.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ "A seggfej Zrínyi előtt amerikai humorista nyerte a hídnévversenyt". Index.hu (in Hungarian). 2006-08-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ a b Stephen Colbert. "Colbert Report: Hungarian Bridge". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
  20. ^ Stephen Colbert. "Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert Salutes Hungary". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
  21. ^ Steinberg, Jacques (2005). "'Daily Show's Personality Gets His Own Platform". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  22. ^ Dowd, Maureen (2006). "Oprah! How Could Ya?". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. ^ ""Canada, You're on Notice!"". The Comedy Network. 2005. Retrieved 2006-09-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  24. ^ "'Colbert,' Cartoons Break Big for Comedy Central". Zap2it. 2005. Retrieved 2006-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  25. ^ http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/delay.JPG
  26. ^ http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/24/delay-colbert/
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Colbert Report.

Radio interviews

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