Colbert's Routine: What Did Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Think?
Here's the middle of Colbert's speech, before the interminably long video and after the crowd-pleasing "Dick Cheney shot a guy in the face" joke.
Shall we discuss the dinner entertainment? Our analysis, after the jump.
There was the creepy Bush impersonator bit, which is tailor-made for these things. It was the perfect act. Lightly "subversive" and insidery and "oh we can laugh at ourselves it's all in fun" gentle ribbing bullshit. Yeah, we hate that kinda stuff.
Then there was Colbert. The two stories of Colbert's routine: a) He bombed. Not funny. Jokes didn't work. b) HE WAS SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER AND WAS A STUNNING AND COURAGEOUS REBEL HERO.
Oy, people. There's nothing courageous about being sarcastic at the White House Correspondents Dinner. It's a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. It's expected. There was only one minute where it got genuinely mean and crossed the line (also, coincidentally, the funniest bit of the speech), and that's the McCain joke half-way through this clip.
The rest was paced poorly, the video ran too long, but it was, overall, a pretty good routine. The reason it went over so poorly is because, we we've mentioned before, Washingtonians have a bizarre sense of humor, and it'sonlyfunny to eviscerate the press if you're amemberof the press. You can eviscerate the President, but onlyif the President knows who you are. Those are the rules. Keep in mind: Colbert waslessmean than Imus in '96. This would be the Imus who is inexplicablystill popularamong Beltway journalists andno one else.
But please, liberals, stop it. You're embarrassing all of us. No one is ignoring Colbert's stunningcri de coeur, because it was actually just a decent standup act with a lousy audience.
So Thank You, Stephen Colbert , for demonstrateing so plainly that, even in this time of low approval ratings and massive administration meltdowns, liberals are so desperate for anything resembling a victory that they'll make Republicans look like winners even when they're imploding.
Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner -- President Not Amused? [E&P]