Thank you, thank you, thank you Mark for introducing me to Stephen Colbert.
Awesome!
What's great is that the guy may very well believe every word of what he said -- yet he can get away with saying it.
I know I'd enjoy telling that audience that they were a bunch of Godless Sodomites, but somehow I don't think they'd take it the same way as they do from Colbert...
"I LOST TO BARRY MANILOW!" That was priceless.
Colbert is really a very funny guy. And he works well with John Stewart.
The dig against FOX News aside, this was actually a pretty pleasant award show.
And Jon Stewart's a pretty funny guy as well- tiresome when he's joking about politics, but otherwise extremely good.
ROTFL. Absolutely priceles! 'Godless sodomites!' I might laugh the rest of the day because of this...
Now I want to be a Colbert impersonator. Or at least a copycat.
Colbert is the court jester to our Hollywood royalty.
Just a little trivia here. Colbert's mother is a Eucharistic minister at my parish. When Stephen is in town he attends Mass with her here.
No doubt Colbert is hilarious, but how are you supposed to tell when he's being sarcastic? I think it's really hard to know what his opinions are since he skewers all his guests, whether they're on the left or the right.
Also, even though he 's Catholic, I don't find his behavior and speech terribly Christian. Just check out his Comedy Central tv series, now cancelled, Stangers with Candy - it had quite a bit of vulgarity.
It is hard to know Colbert's true beliefs on anything he's satirizing. His stage persona of "know-it-all religious conservative" is supposed to look ridiculous but somehow his sarcastic and satiric antics (like to "Godless sodomites") have a ring of truth to them. I think the Hollywood hotshots know that but they can laugh at Colbert's schtick as long as he is playing that character he has developed, otherwise they wouldn't find him amusing. The man certainly is talented and I do find him funny.
"Good evening Godless Sodomites."
I too will be laughing the rest of the day thanks to this.
This was a brilliant bit by both Colbert and Stewart. I was screaming/laughing when I first saw it during the Emmy telecast.
I second Thomps' sentiments above.
Maybe I'm just not "with it", but I'm not a fan of Colbert's schtick.
I admit to being pretty thin-skinned when it comes to political humor, so it's probably just me. But does anyone else think that the purpose of the "Godless sodomites" quip was to parody those with traditional values as being bigoted?
Again, I am fully prepared to accept that the problem is all mine and my ill-formed sense of humor regarding such subject matter.
I gotta agree. I don't find Colbert funny at all either. (Though that may have to do with the fact that I was born with a stunted and deformed sense of humour, which had to be surgically removed shortly after birth for fear it would turn malign.)
His shtick only occasionally includes genuinely funny insights, more often being nothing but mockingly exaggerated imitation. And like all such mockery, it's a deceptive, cheating form of proselytizing. It's all about saying, "Look how ridiculous my capering is! And therefore what I'm aping must be ridiculous too!"
To paraphrase Lewis, it takes great wit to make an actual Joke or actually prove something ridiculous; it takes very little wit to simply create a ridiculous distortion of your target and claim that simply being able to create that distortion somehow proves the inherent ridiculousness of the original.
What I hate most of all about mockery is it's a fundamentally contemptuous attitude, and I loathe contempt above all other human feelings. Disagree, be angry, be hurt, be sorrowful - but don't laugh other people off as if they deserve no more than humiliation. (And yes, that's a hot button created by years of being mocked exactly that way as a kid -- can't deny it. Doesn't mean it isn't true, though.)
Colbert's a geek and a Catholic. I wish I did like him better. But his style of humour (and Jon Stewart's) mostly just makes me want to punch him in the face.
(All those who wish to say, "Dude, it's a comedy show. Chill out" are perfectly correct in their reactions. Consider this a vent rather than a reasoned argument, and feel free to write me off as a kook. I can't defend how I feel to those who feel differently; I just won't deny it.)
I agree that Colbert is very hard to figure out - partly because when he's in the High Conservative mode interviewing guests he does nail them at times. I think that's what confuses people. If it were "typical" Hollywood "Make fun of Bill O'Reilly" time, it would be Colbert's character that ended up being the butt of the jokes. A lot of the confusion stems from his interview with Bart Ehrman and then, close on that, his interview with stem-cell researchers, and his debate with himself on the same issue, in which the liberal side came out looking pretty silly.
And even his interview with Donohue was bizarre because as much of a buffoon Donohue was, Colbert seemed to hold back. It was odd.
So that's what keeps people coming back to Colbert trying to figure him out.
Jay and Stephen are right - in that this is mockery, not high wit. But look at the target - the O'Reilly/Hannity (and we might add) Olbermann school of pompous, often ill-informed pretention in the name of informing the rest of us.
That deserves mockery, - I can see it.
And I have to admit... having "Lutherans" on your "Dead to Me" list - is, well ...funny.
But does anyone else think that the purpose of the "Godless sodomites" quip was to parody those with traditional values as being bigoted?
That is how I take it. I think his audience laughs because he's parodying something they think is absurd. If he is trying to say sodomites are godless, I think everyone is laughing at him, not with him.
I do enjoy his show, but with caution. Even if does hold the liberal line on some moral matters, I'm able to laugh and process that as the quirk of a silly liberal. But, I worry that other people out there take it and take it as confirmation that their faith in homosexuality, for example, is right, and the absurdity of the opposite side is evident in Stephen Colbert.
Disagree, be angry, be hurt, be sorrowful - but don't laugh other people off as if they deserve no more than humiliation.
In his NPR interview he says that he's always worried about doing just that, ridiculing people's honest faith. He says he wants to ridicule hypocrisy, rathe than your religious belief.
They ask him about mocking pharmacists who refuse to fill contraception, and how that doesn't constitute disrespect, and he says that it's hypocritical to oppose abortion but also oppose contraception which would prevent abortions.
Stuff like that is why I enjoy him with reservation.
"But look at the target - the O'Reilly/Hannity (and we might add) Olbermann school of pompous, often ill-informed pretention in the name of informing the rest of us. That deserves mockery, - I can see it."
Pomposity deserves to be ignored; bad information needs to be corrected. I don't see that that makes mocking the person involved any more necessary.
Mockery is to express the ultimate form of contempt: It is to say that the target does not deserve even an angry or indignant response -- only scornful laughter. It's an impulse I distrust and loathe.
Sin is to treat people as objects, and one of the biggest and easiest first steps in making people feel like objects is to treat them like jokes - what we don't dignify, we soon come to think has no dignity; and for actual people, that's a big mistake.
(Overreacting like a streetcorner maniac in a combox, on the other hand, is worth laughing at.)
That last crack was directed at myself, by the way; just to be on the safe side of clarity.
Actually, the Catechism does warn against irony, which can be a sin that:
Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth. So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior. (#2481)
Stephen J. nails it! He articulated perfectly my own discomfort with humor as it is deployed in our pop culture and how this has trickled down to our dealings with our brothers and sisters in the faith and in our own families.
Thank you Jason for that citation on the catechism. I will be sure to keep that handy the next time comboxers argue that ridiculing one's appearance (i.e. graying liberal Catholic VOTF types) is a legitimate rhetorical tool and not an expression of contempt.
I don't know what Colbert's "real" game is, but the fact is, when he said:
"godless Sodomites!" and "Bow before your god!" (the golden Emmy) . . .
It is 100% true!
So who, really, is being mocked?
Jason--ouch. But thanks.
That's a good reminder to keep it gentle (the irony, that is).
I dunno about Colbert. I agree with the folks who think he was satirizing those with traditional values. I also don't like performers who try to play both sides or hide in ambiguity after making politically charged statements. I just don't find Colbert as funny as Mark does. I have seem him deliver a few funny lines, but so does "South Park"!!
It's pure Shakespearean... the fool more often than not speaks the truth, often ridiculing the powerful without impunity strictly because he plays the fool. If you can get a man to laugh at himself, then he is not too far away from conversion. Kudos to Colbert. Laughing with Colbert when he's right doesn't equate to full-handed endorsement.
Watched Conan O'Brian when Colbert was a guest. They talked about faith, specifically Catholicism. I think he does seem to be a person who does take his faith seriously. He teaches CCD in his parish, his daughter's class. Wouldn't you like to sit in on that one!!!
What I like most about Colbert is he seems absolutely bent on education. Yes, the "Better know a district" segmaent is an opportunity to "nail" a congressperson, but heck, it's also a social studies class.
He's totally interested in raising the bar on discourse. That's a Catholic thing to do, I think, if the mind is a road to God--as both St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure thought.
I wish he'd stop with the homosexual gags. Other than that, I just love it.
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