Can Stephen Colbert save America?

[babylonsister]

Can Stephen Colbert save America?

A new book argues that Colbert, Jon Stewart and Bill Maher are good for democracy. But is it taking late-night comedy too seriously?

By Louis Bayard


Stephen Colbert, right, entertains as President Bush watches at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, April 29, 2006. Foreground, left to right: David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Jay Leno.


April 5, 2008 | Asking an academic to explain humor to you is like getting Kenneth Starr to explain the sex act: The explainer has already waged war on the thing being explained. And so anyone looking for yuks in Russell L. Peterson's "Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy Into a Joke" will have to get past the following hurdles: extensive endnotes; a killjoy thesis, relentlessly iterated; and, most deathly of all, repeated references to Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergson.

The funny bone, in most cases, is no match for the pointy head. Peterson's head, though, is something a good deal more: zesty and contentious and sophisticated -- and capable even of coughing up a good line or two on its own. An American studies professor at the University of Iowa, Peterson is a former stand-up comic and political cartoonist who wants to know how we're changed by the act of laughing. Not just any laughing, either, but the kind that happens late in the evening, when the Lenos and Lettermans and Stewarts and Colberts are making merry with the day's carnage.

The combined ratings of all their programs may be less than Johnny Carson in his heyday, but late-night TV matters now as never before. For all its parodic inflections, it has become one of the main news sources for Americans, particularly young Americans, and politicians of every stripe happily perch themselves in whatever dunking booth they can find for the chance of an uninterrupted 10 minutes with the 18-to-29 demographic.

Four years ago, John Kerry was so eager to ride his Harley onto "The Tonight Show" stage that he agreed to follow Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Arnold Schwarzenegger used the same forum to launch his 2003 gubernatorial bid. John McCain announced his most recent candidacy on "Letterman," and with every change of season comes Hillary Clinton, brandishing a new Top 10 list. These appearances tend to follow the same arc of humiliation. Candidate takes good-natured ribbing from host; host claps candidate on shoulder, ushers him or her offstage ... and then carries on joking about candidate as if person had never been there. Ain't America great?

Well, on that last question, Peterson is suggestively mum, but he's quite voluble on another subject: the jokes themselves. "In spite of the fact that comedy about politics is now as common as crabgrass, political comedy -- that is, genuine satire, which uses comedic means to advance a serious critique -- is so rare we might be tempted to conclude it is extinct."

more...

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/04/05/late_night/

[Demeter]

1. Humor and Hard Work Are The Only Things That Ever Save Society

[stellanoir]

2. It has been said that the only way to unseat an unruly tyrant

is through satire.

Who knows. . .?

[BobTheSubgenius]

3. I think Peterson is 'spot on.'

At least, with his characterizations of the various players. Leno IS obsequious, Colbert presents an almost flawless (albeit too gentle, IMO) mirror of RW talking heads, and who the hell cares if Dennis Miller thinks he can somehow link No Child Left Behind with Nietzsche's understanding of Zarathustra, in 300 words or less.


It's not funny. Pseudo-literate, but not funny.

[Ian David]

5. It's fitting that Sinbad has had more of an influence on this election than Dennis MIller. n/t

[Ian David]

4. I'm still trying to get my Star Wars Galaxies guild to rename our city to Mos Colbert.

When Stargate Worlds comes online, I'm going to get in early and name a city or planet after Stephen Colbert.

[valerief]

6. I kiss my wrists every day in Colbert's honor. I slit them every other day in the name of Bush. nt

[sce56]

7. Well he sure did show up BillO with his Polk award{Peabody that is}

"The Colbert Report" won a Peabody Award Thursday. In a statement released yesterday, Colbert said, "I proudly accept this award and begrudgingly forgive the Peabody Committee for taking three years to recognize greatness. On a personal note, I'd like to say that I've long been a fan of Mr. Peabody, as well as his boy Sherman."

Loved his White House Correspondents dinner speech keep it on my flash disk!

[eilen]

8. I give him mad props for acknowledging Mr. Peabody and his pet son

Sherman. My favorite genius nerdy white dog.

[sce56]

9. Oh yes we sure can date ourselves with the knowledge of what he was talking about