Wow, Somebody Said It
Stephen Colbert’s blistering performance at the White House Correspondents’ dinner burst like a wildfire on the blogosphere. When mainstream reporters gave Colbert’s satire short shrift, allegations of sour grapes (since Colbert mocked the press almost as harshly as he ripped into The Decider) followed along with accusations that they were trying to cover up Colbert’s message.
Video here if you haven’t seen it.
The debate over Colbert’s performance was itself an interesting spectacle: a war of words on various political blogs, a realm where communication is as easy as firing off a snide e-mail and hitting Send. Convenience, we see, does not confer quality. In this sphere of knee-jerk opinion and razor-sharp spitefulness, no one looked at the incident in much depth. Consistently, the debated issue was whether Colbert was funny. How is that supposed to matter? You found it funny or you didn’t – it isn’t a test of political allegiance. Laughing at Colbert doesn’t make you a Dean-scream liberal, and if you thought he went too far and behaved rudely, that doesn’t make you Cheney’s lapdog.
Arguing over Colbert’s performance as if it were an ordinary comedy performance is beside the point. Colbert was hired as an entertainer, but what he actually did was very different. He showed up at a badminton match and proceeded to play tackle football. It was an act of guerilla theatre, using satire to say some forbidden things and put a light on a few elephants that were in the room. Something about his stunt has touched a nerve – yet no one examines it.
There seems to be a climate where we must look to comedians to be frank about our politics. That just might be what Colbert was trying to tell us.
May 10th, 2006 at 10:31 am
I’m looking forward to seeing the video of Colbert, although I’ll probably wait until I get to work: we can’t get high-speed access here in the northern California “sticks.”
June 20th, 2006 at 11:27 am
That’s right, Algy, we are in a climate where only the court Jesters have the wisdom of clear sight, and only the truth is funny. Cobert and Stewart are merciless in their satire, and masters at using the media to skewer the fools that lead. I applaud their work. And look at the respect they get! The guest lineups on the shows are a veritable who’s who of politics and punditry. It’s a shame their half hour shows are not more widely distributed: the revolution might be televised after all!