[Heccubus]

While the Comedy Network hasn't picked it up for Canada yet, I did manage to download the first episode of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report", the first Daily Show spin-off series.
Personally, I thought it was hilarious, and it topped recent episodes of the Daily Show on many levels. While I was disappointed to see how far removed it was from the gag promos that were aired on the Daily Show last year, it was still a fine start to what will hopefully become a long-running series.
Anybody else happen to catch it?

[Despondent]

I saw it. Didn't strike me as funny as TDS used to be. But then I'm conservative and lately the daily show has been as fair and balanced at the O'Reilly Factor so I've stopped watching (both).

I know it's lame, but I like the Corrolla show which follows. He also has a show on the learning channel where he (Adam Corolla, half of the old Man show team) flips a house with his buds.

but I can say Colbert was Col-better than than the guy who said to assassinate Bush, and no longer has a show anymore on CBS.

[Al Creed]

I think The Colbert Report is fantastic, the perfect sendup of the pundit genre of television. "The Word" has risen to a level of priority that is only shared by "Back In Black" on The Daily Show, in which ALL activity ceases, to enjoy its sheer awesomeness.

As well, the opening sequence, with the agressive flag-waving, the "Pullsquint," the finger pointing, and the CGI Bald Eagle on the rampage? Best. Intro. Ever.

My only complaint is the fact that The Colbert Report now shares the same initials as The Cultural Revolution.

[ion eon]

I really like that show, it makes all the depressing things in the world, well...funny.

[Chefelf]

I still haven't caught the show but I need to put aside the time.

To touch on Despondent's comments, the show with Adam Corolla flipping the house is amazing. The episode where he does a scat into a can of Pam with his father is beatiful!

[Al Creed]

Catch it THIS week. They're on break, but the show has been SPECTACULAR so far.

[Sailor Abbey]

Hey I just found this thread, and I have to say, this is one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in a long time. What’s great about him, in my opinion, is that he’s a conservative. He tries to play it off like he’s only being sarcastic, but you can tell he’s not. I mean, the guy did is show ash Wednesday with ashes on his forehead. And then he got ashed again on Thursday - called it "Ash Thursday," and did the show like that again.

He still makes his occasional jokes about the president and Cheney, but you can tell he’s just being silly. That and I’ve seen him get pissy as some of his ‘liberal’ guests for being anti-bush and anti-Iraq War.

Plus he does it all with a straight face, and who doesn’t love that. I never thought TDS was even remotely funny. I have tried on multiple occasions to sit down and watch it, but I cant get into it. I don’t hate it or anything, I just never really thought it was that funny.

I watched the first two weeks of TCR religiously and have tried to catch as many as I can since then. I highly recommend this show to anyone and everyone.

And I’m sure you don’t have to be a conservative to find it humorous. Id be willing to bet comedy central’s fan base is more on the liberal side. And considering it is a spin off from TDS, you have to assume some of TCR initial audience would have been some of TDS’s fans.

I don’t know. Anyways, go watch it. There’s reruns on all day long so nobody has any excuses. Make it happen.

[jariten]

You can watch a few episodes on YouTube.

Or at least you could, there seems to be a bit of a clampdown going on over there now.

[Otal Nimrodi]

I love the Colbert Report. I love the Daily Show too. They're both funny, but in different ways. Some don't appreciate the humor in the Report, some don't appreciate the humor the Daily Show.

This post has been edited by Otal Nimrodi: 25 March 2006 - 09:55 AM

[jariten]

Although I just watched this.

[RANT. WARNING DO NOT READ UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES]

Alright so its another cheap laugh which goes over the same tired old ground AGAIN ("the japanese are so crazy!") and as such i'm sure the producers would say "don't take it seriously". Watching that stupid clip of Morning Musume being attacked by a lizard (which would be like "randomly" showing a clip of stupid UK kids TV show Fun House to show how strange the Brits are), just made me think that every time they show the "crazy" Japanese on a "crazy" TV show speaking that "crazy" language the message sinks in. I've met so many people, intelligent people with good fucking jobs who come out with shit like "hey jariten, why are all the Japanese so (weird/strange/stupid/mental etc.)? well not all of them, but most of them?" i'm sure they've got stuff like this clip in mind. Isn't the message thats going in actually this:

"The Japanese are different to us, and inferior as a result"

http://www.youtube.c...olbert%20report

[/RANT]

[Otal Nimrodi]

Hey, look, I know he didn't randomly select that clip. You know he didn't randomly select that clip. He, the Network Executives, EVERYONE knows he didn't randomly select that clip. Frankly, you're not SUPPOSED to think he selected that clip randomly. You're SUPPOSED to know that wasn't "whatever they had on." As far as I can tell, you're supposed to think that the people at Comedy Central spent QUITE a long time looking through clips to find a clip like that. But that's just as far as I know. Perhaps Comedy Central wasn't trying to be funny.

This post has been edited by Otal Nimrodi: 25 March 2006 - 08:14 PM

[jariten]

Hey, look, I know he didn't randomly select that clip. You know he didn't randomly select that clip. He, the Network Executives, EVERYONE knows he didn't randomly select that clip. Frankly, you're not SUPPOSED to think he selected that clip randomly. You're SUPPOSED to know that wasn't "whatever they had on." As far as I can tell, you're supposed to think that the people at Comedy Central spent QUITE a long time looking through clips to find a clip like that. But that's just as far as I know. Perhaps Comedy Central wasn't trying to be funny.

did you read my post?

of course it wasn't random. It was supposed to be funny.

The point is that this comedy isn't harmless, and has an accumilative effect on its audience.

[Gobbler]

That is, as long as the audience can be influenced that easily... come on, I know that the world out there is populated by morons, but try to give 'em some credit here and there, too, okay?

[jariten]

That is, as long as the audience can be influenced that easily... come on, I know that the world out there is populated by morons, but try to give 'em some credit here and there, too, okay?

well, but thats what my examples were trying to illustrate before- whenever I go home for a break I get asked the same questions.

While a producer of a show like that would say "its just for fun", the trouble is that there are very few avenues of exposure available to a western audience about Japan or Asia in general (that clip also didnt seem to care that it was randomly throwing asian stereotypes out there as if "its asia, its all the same thing") and they generally come from two sources-

1. Cheap laughs like this ("the Japanese are crazy!")
2. The Last Samurai and its culture raping ilk ("The Japanese are mysterious and spiritual")

The end result of this is that supposedly harmless, throwaway articles like this Colbert Report example actually end up being assimilated as fact by the audience.

Going back to my earlier thing about the kind of questions i'm asked, last time I went home someone actually said
"How do the Japanese strike a balance between being spiritual and yet being so crazy all the time?" (paraphrased). This from a perfectly intelligent uni graduate.

Anyway sorry for derailing the thread...i'll go back to the SW forum now.

[Otal Nimrodi]

Personally, I have asked around, and found that, evidently, about 2/3rds of all humans are as crazy as the Japanese were shown in the Colbert Report. I've asked several people from Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, The United States of America, even Brazil, and all my sources say that about 2/3rds of people there are that crazy. I'm trying to get more contacts in other places. I'll get back to you when I can. Next on my list... I need to ask some Canadians! And Germans... And Russians... In fact, I'll just post a map, highlighting the places I need to find out about. Post coming soon.