Colbert vs. Stewart

[bobquasit]

My comment on an article over on the Washington Post about Colbert vs Stewart:

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The Daily Show has funnier sketches and supporting players (not surprising, since Colbert's on-camera supporting team is much smaller). But Steven Colbert is a far more incisive and effective interviewer than Jon Stewart, who has a tendency to take it easy on his guests.

All in all, The Daily Show is marginally funnier, but Colbert is more biting and newsworthy. But both shows are funny and great.

If I had to vote for one of the two for President? Colbert. His in-your-face speech at the 2006 White House Correspondence Dinner was one of the most impressive acts of political courage that I've seen in the past twenty years.

Which is, I'll admit, a sad commentary on the state of American politics: that a truth-to-power speech by a comedian to a criminal President and criminally negligent Washington press corps ranks as a major act of courage. Nonetheless, it does.

Comments

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

I can guess with near certainty that in US history no comedian has ever been killed by the Federal Government or the Washington press corps because of something they said in a routine, extended or otherwise. I can certainly see the possibility that some Conspiracy Theorist might figure that some comic who made a controversial statement and later died (of an accident, or chemical abuse, or whatever) was actually killed by whatever bogeyman the Theorist picks, but that's not saying a lot. I seriously, seriously doubt that Colbert ever thought, "Gee, somebody might kill me for this."

His show getting canceled is a bit of a possibility, sure. The Smothers Brothers show back in the sixties was canceled despite high ratings due to its political content, and Bill Maher lost his ABC show because of overly frank statements at a time when people didn't want to hear them. However, Colbert's bit at the press dinner were pretty much the same thing he does on the show, in spirit at least. It would be absurd for Comedy Central to cancel him over something that wasn't all that different from what he normally does and most likely boosted his ratings. Comedy Central from what I can see has a fair amount of stuff that is offensive to somebody so why would they care if the press corps think (as they were saying at the time) he was rude or vulgar or doing something inappropriate for the setting?

The reality, I suspect, is that the Powers That Be know of the dancing monkeys but they're not really afraid of them. Heck, some of the Powers might well figure that Colbert and Stewart are helpful to their goals because (some suggest) the viewers of the shows become cynical and end up not voting. Republicans like vote suppression.