The Colbert Report

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The Colbert Report (pronounced /koʊl.ˈbɛɹ ɹə.ˈpɔɹ/ or coal-BEAR re-PORE, with silent T's), is an American satirical television program on Comedy Central that stars Stephen Colbert, best known previously as a correspondent for The Daily Show. The show continues the Stephen Colbert correspondent character from The Daily Show, but in a different context — a direct parody of political pundit programs, especially those regarded as right-wing or Republican-leaning, particularly The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes. The Report recently celebrated its 100th show.

Stephen Colbert originally became well-known for his acting in the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy which also starred Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris.

The Report airs following The Daily Show at 11:30 p.m. EST and PST, Monday through Thursday. The Colbert Report is being followed up by a second spin-off of The Daily Show, a show called Red State Diaries to be hosted by Lewis Black and slated to debut in 2006.

Contents

Origin

A computer generated eagle, Liberty, swoops in on the viewer in the intro to The Colbert Report

Colbert on "The Colbert Gang"

Comedy Central in 2005 announced The Colbert Report as part of a lineup where they hope to "Keep the viewers attracted by The Daily Show to keep watching late into the night." Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Ben Karlin (The Daily Show's executive producer) supposedly came up with the idea for the show after watching coverage of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Bill O'Reilly. Jon Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions, developed the Report. Colbert, Stewart, and Karlin pitched the idea of the show (reportedly with one sentence: "Stephen Colbert parodies The O'Reilly Factor") to Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, who agreed to buy it.

The Colbert Report first appeared in the form of three fake commercials for itself that aired several times on The Daily Show, although the themes that would form the basis for the Report can be seen in some of the earlier bits performed by Colbert. The show debuted October 17, 2005, for an eight week run under its initial contract. On November 2, based on the strong ratings for the show's first two weeks, Comedy Central and Colbert announced they had signed for an additional year, through the end of 2006.

The Colbert Report was not the first fictional show Colbert was portrayed as the host of on The Daily Show. For example, in a segment called "Corporate Slogans", Colbert was the host of a fictional "Sunday morning chat show", The Colbert Gang, which featured green screen subliminal messages similar to the style of The Wørd.The Daily Show. ["Corporate Slogans"].

Format of the show

Typically, Colbert starts each episode with teasers for the show's topics and guest, followed by a dominant verbal metaphor for the way he intends to convey "truth" to his viewers. (For example, using a football metaphor: "Go out ten yards and button-hook to the left. I'm going to hit you with a perfect spiral of the truth.") Then the show's opening titles sequence kicks off, with images of flag waving, Colbert striking poses and words describing Colbert flying by. Originally, the last word to fly past Colbert was "grippy", but it has changed to "megamerican" and, more recently, "lincolnish".

The general flow of segments after the opening titles is:

The initial run-through of the day's headlines, similar to The Daily Show but with a pseudo-right-wing spin
"The Wørd" [sic] which juxtaposes Colbert's commentary with ironic bullet points on-screen
A middle segment that varies
An interview with a guest, who is initially kept in the background while spotlights focus on Colbert as he does a victory trot through the studio.
A closing statement by Colbert, occasionally accompanied by a new item placed on his bookshelf.

\"Stephen Colbert\" the character

Stephen Colbert, star of The Colbert Report

Personality

In the show, Stephen Colbert assumes the role of, as he has explained in out-of-character interviews, a "poorly informed, high-status idiot" [link], a parody of pundit show hosts found on American cable television news, in particular Bill O'Reilly, but also with influences from Joe Scarborough and Sean Hannity. Colbert has said the essence of what he felt the need to mock is summed up in a rule Scarborough claimed to adhere to: that he isn't doing his job if he lets his guest speak for more than seven seconds at a time without interruption. [link]

Colbert has said he also wants to capture some of the "folksiness" and love of his own monologue allegedly portrayed by former CNN anchor Aaron Brown. When radio host Terry Gross interviewed Colbert on NPR's Fresh Air, Colbert also cited Stone Philips, his first guest, as a major influence on his character, for his command of "gravitas."

Overall, the routine of the character Colbert assumes in the show is centered on [[wikt:egomania|egomania]] and reducing complex world affairs into ludicrously simplified soundbites or arbitrary conclusions, to humorous effect. In the premiere episode, Colbert denied that the show was all about him — even while simultaneously pointing out that his name appears all over the studio set and that his desk is shaped like a giant "C."

Despite his bravado, the Colbert character is also rather high-strung and tends to panic whenever something violates his worldview - such as on those rare occasions when George W. Bush does something he disapproves of. A running gag has him stalking an ex-girlfriend, Charlene, and for reasons unknown he has a phobic hatred of bears.

Colbert has said on multiple occasions that he finds the pushy self-assurance of the "Colbert" character rather exhausting to maintain, and he doubts he can keep the character going indefinitely.

Biography

While still on The Daily Show the Colbert character admitted he had been born Ted Hitler. The Colbert character also claimed to have been in the United States Marine Corps until called on this lie, and corrected that he was part of a "core" crew of employees at a marina (the "marina core"). This was all a reference to O'Reilly's claiming to have been "in combat."

Colbert is frequently shown to have worked in journalism for a long time. Occasionally footage is shown of him as a "young man" (usually with a thick mustache and hilariously stereotypical 70's fashions) working an anchor at a local news station in South Carolina, still displaying his trademark outrage over minor municipal issues in the manner of ABC correspondent John Stossel. It appears that in the fictional reality of the Colbert Report, Kevin Spacey performs the acting roles that the real Colbert has done, such as Chuck Noblet in Strangers With Candy.

It is sometimes implied that Stephen was much less of a square when he was younger, including numerous passing references to having first-hand familiarity with recreational drugs such as opiates, marijuana and cocaine as well as a reference to a wild back-packing tour across Europe.

Colbert jokingly claimed that, in the 1980's, he was briefly part of an ABC-like new wave band called "Stephen and the Colberts," of which he was apparently the only member. The band's only song to date is entitled "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)" in which Colbert stalks the woman (lyrics include "I think of you, when I dream of you, when I'm takin' pictures of you! I think of you when I'm in a blimp looking down from up above you!"). The video for the song featured Colbert wearing makeup and sporting bad '80s hair while crooning on a rooftop and striking '80s video poses.

The Colbert character has a phobia of bears, which he refers to as "godless killing machines without a soul." In his interview with Gross, Colbert said that his character's fear of bears is based on his real life childhood nightmare of bears mauling him in his sleep.

Most of the biographical details of the "real" Colbert are generally also used for the fictional one. Colbert mentions being born in South Carolina, being married, and having three children.

Interaction with guests

When the show premiered, the studio guests appeared to be uncertain and put off by Colbert's character. But by the fourth and fifth episodes, Colbert established a routine of remaining in character in a more affable way, and keeping his guest comfortable and in on the fun. One reviewer identified Colbert's on-the-spot ad libbing in character during the studio interviews as the one aspect of the show that was funniest and most indicative of (the actor) Colbert's true talent.

The set (\"The Eagle's Nest\")

The studio in which The Colbert Report is taped was used for The Daily Show before the show was moved in July 2005 to a new location and reflects the self-aggrandizing nature of Colbert's character, including:

Colbert often points out his Emmy and Peabody Awards (from The Daily Show) located on a mantelpiece behind his guest interview area. This is an ironic reference to Bill O'Reilly, who claimed in 2000 that his previous show, Inside Edition, had won two Peabodys, instead of the George Polk Award which Inside Edition did win in 1994 after O'Reilly had left the show.
Colbert sometimes stands next to a portrait that depicts him standing next to another portrait of himself.
Colbert's desk viewed from above is a large "C."

Colbert refers to his set as the Eagle's Nest, apparently oblivious that the same title was also used by Hitler to describe his mountain retreat in Germany.

Overall, the design of the set mocks the tendency of some media, particularly Fox News, to prominently feature patriotic symbols, imagery, and colors of the United States. Aside from the opening titles sequence described above, the graphics used throughout the show and the studio itself are saturated with American flags and other patriotic imagery, including an eagle's nest prop placed to the side of Colbert's desk and Bald Eagles shown in many places throughout the show, mocking the patriotism shown by many Fox TV Commentator shows.

In an interview with The Onion, Colbert explained that much of the design for his set was based on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper: "All the architecture of that room points at Jesus' head, the entire room is a halo, and he doesn't have a halo. On the set, I'd like the lines of the set to converge on my head. And so if you look at the design, it all does, it all points at my head. And even radial lines on the floor, and on my podium, and watermarks in the images behind me, and all the vertices, are right behind my head. So there's a sort of sun-god burst quality about the set around me."

An image of the New York skyline appears in the windowpane behind Colbert's interview table. The skyline is partially obscured by what appear to be a giant torch-bearing right hand and projections from the sun-crown worn by the Statue of Liberty. This visually implies that the Colbert Report is broadcast from inside the Statue of Liberty's head. "Lady Liberty" is modeled after the Colossus of Rhodes, a representation of the Greek sun-god Helios. If every line in the set extends out from Colbert's head, those lines then metaphorically radiate out from the set through the Statue of Liberty and across America. The extended implication is that Colbert's character views himself as the physical incarnation of divinity, the sun-god. Although this seems humorously over-the-top, secretly believing oneself to be an incarnation of God or the chosen of God is sometimes an aspect of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A case could be made that several of the pundits satirized by Colbert display many of the telltale characteristics of this condition.

Relation to The O'Reilly Factor

For the most part the Stephen Colbert character and The Colbert Report are direct parodies of Bill O'Reilly and his The O'Reilly Factor. New episodes of The Colbert Report are scheduled in the same time slot as rebroadcasts of The O'Reilly Factor while Colbert rebroadcasts are scheduled during new O'Reilly shows.[link]

Colbert frequently refers to O'Reilly as his mentor and calls him "Papa Bear" in an endearing manner — a nickname with an ironic double-meaning, as Colbert frequently states that he considers bears to be the number-one threat to the national security of the United States today.

When O'Reilly appeared on The Daily Show before the second episode of The Colbert Report aired, he began by commenting on the Report: "Before we get started, somebody told me walking in here, you got some French guy on after you making fun of me?" In a February 2006 issue of Newsweek magazine, O'Reilly admitted that he enjoys the Report because Colbert "isn't mean spirited," and "doesn't use his platform to injure people." In an open reply on-air, Colbert later said: "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist." Further, in one episode Colbert states that imitation is a sincere form of flattery, and adds he is "flattered by Bill O'Reilly's imitation" of him.

The Colbert Report directly parodies The O'Reilly Factor with a commentary segment called "The WØRD," similar to O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo." Like "the Memo," "The WØRD" features Colbert asserting a political point of view with a text screen graphic next to him. However, while O'Reilly's text serves to emphasize his points, Colbert's instead serve to provide an ironic counterpoint to his position. Also, Colbert's "No Fact Zone" is clearly inspired by O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone."

Reception

The Colbert Report drew an unusual amount of media anticipation prior to its premiere, including from The New Yorker, NPR's All Things Considered and Fresh Air, CNN, and The Washington Post. The New York Times alone ran three articles on the Report before its debut, and has made repeated references to The Colbert Report since then. For example, Maureen Dowd alluded to Colbert's "Dead To Me" board as a metaphor in her column, saying that Oprah Winfrey "should take a page from Stephen Colbert and put the slippery James Frey on her 'Dead to me' list."

The Colbert Report drew 1.13 million viewers for its premiere episode, 47% higher than the average for that time slot over the previous four weeks and a full 98% of the viewership of The Daily Show, which itself has Comedy Central's second-largest viewership, behind South Park. Further, in 2006, the first year of the Report's eligibility, Colbert's show was nominated for 4 Emmys, including nominations for the show itself and for Colbert as host.

Averaged over its opening week, the Report had 1.2 million viewers per episode, more than double the average for the same time the previous year. It should be noted that the show previously in that time slot was Too Late with Adam Carolla. The premiere week of The Colbert Report also coincided with the second-highest rated week of The Daily Show, behind the week leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

Report in Canada

As with The Daily Show, viewers in Canada can watch The Colbert Report on CTV and The Comedy Network, which began airing The Colbert Report on November 7, 2005. It currently airs at 11:30 p.m. ET and PT on the Comedy Network and at 12:35 a.m. local time on CTV.

Colbert opened the first show to air in Canada with a joking bilingual welcome and several Canadian jibes. After Conservative Stephen Harper's victory in the Canadian Federal election seventy-seven days after the Report first aired in Canada, Colbert proudly proclaimed he had "fixed Canada in seventy-seven days" on the January 25, 2006, episode.

Influence on the English language

Stephen Colbert announces that "The WØRD" of the night is "truthiness", during the premiere episode of The Colbert Report.

Truthiness

In "The WØRD" on the first episode of the Report, Colbert featured the term "truthiness," which he defined as the quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination. In December 2005, the New York Times selected "truthiness" as one of nine words that captured the zeitgeist of the year, and in January 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that "truthiness" was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year. Colbert has since made frequent reference to the widespread influence of "truthiness" since he introduced it, while carping on media accounts of "truthiness" that neglect to identify him as its source. Truthiness has since been discussed, several times in many cases, in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Editor & Publisher, Salon, The Huffington Post, ABC NewsRadio's Word Watch with Kel Richards and Chicago Reader, and on ABC's Nightline, CBS's 60 Minutes, and The Oprah Winfrey Show (see truthiness). In January 2006, "truthiness" was featured as a Word of the Week by the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary.

Gaysrael

He refers to Massachusetts as a possible Gaysrael, a place where all the homosexuals in the US can move to. The Colbert character supports this, believing that if all the gays are in one place they can then be carefully observed. He also believes this will preserve "traditional marriage" in the other 49 states. He has warned people to stay out of the "Gayza Strip".

Mistaken for non-satirical journalism

The Tom DeLay Legal Defense Trust posted a video of The Colbert Report on its website and sent out a mass email urging DeLay supporters to watch how "Hollywood liberal" Robert Greenwald "crashed and burned... when promoting his new attack on Tom DeLay." http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/delay.JPG The video features Colbert asking questions such as "Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?" http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/24/delay-colbert/ The Trust's email describes its content as "the truth behind Liberal Hollywood's" film about DeLay, and characterizes the Colbert Report clip with the headline, "Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie".

As word of the DeLay site error spread through the internet and news outlets, especially Democratic-leaning blogs, the video clip began to malfunction on the Legal Defense Trust website. It is believed but not proven that the site's creators, put in the embarrassing situation of not realizing the satire until far too late, decided the best way to save face was by deliberately sabotaging the video clip.

On June 8, 2006, Colbert retaliated on his show by conducting an "Exclusive Fake Interview" with DeLay. It was done by splicing three different interviews with DeLay on different networks to put him in a bad light. Colbert ended the "interview" by saying "I do hope you enjoyed my manipulation of your words." This idea may have come from The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart hosted a hoax-debate between the current President, George Bush, and George Bush from the year 2000. In this "interview" they also took various clips from different interviews to respond to the questions given, and it showed how the then-current president had completely different points of view on foreign policy than he formally did in 2000.

Awards

In 2006, The Colbert Report was nominated for 4 Emmys, 1 more than its parent show The Daily Show.

Trivia

On March 2, 2006, Colbert used his "The Da Colbert Code" (a parody of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code), a series of bizarrely random word associations, to accurately predict the Oscar winners for five major awards, including the underdog Crash for Best Picture. The following show, on March 6, 2006, was marked by Colbert's proclamation that "I called it!" as balloons rained down from the ceiling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIot4A2fMeU&search=colbert

Colbert often refers to his (fake) novel, [Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure], which features himself as the main character, Tek Jansen. Bill O'Reilly has authored one novel, a thriller titled Those Who Trespass, about a protagonist based on O'Reilly himself who kills co-workers who stand in the way of his television career.

Stephen Colbert's right ear pokes out slightly further than the left, a fact he has acknowledged and made fun of on the show. Coincidentally, he is also deaf in that ear.

On March 29, 2006, Colbert announced that he had been contacted by representatives of the San Francisco Zoo seeking his permission to name an as-of-yet unhatched bald eagle after him. The eagle, affectionately dubbed "Stephen Jr." on the Report, was hatched to be reintroduced into the wild as a part of the zoo's California Bald Eagle Breeding Program. Colbert celebrated its birth on-air on April 17, 2006, and updates on the bird's development have been featured on the show since. [link]

The Report's theme song was written and performed by Cheap Trick.
The eagle featured in Colbert Report advertising, in the logo, and often in the background videos is named "Liberty".
Uses FedEx instead of UPS on his show in several episodes, contrary to a threat down where he listed FedEx founder Fred Smith as being one of the top threats to America.
In recent episodes, Colbert has made frequent references to Gregory House from the Fox show, House. He views him as a "hero who is larger than life, and who shapes the United States." He puts him in the same hero category consisting of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
On June 5, 2006, the Colbert Report's 100th episode aired. Stone Phillips, the first guest on the show, returned to become the first two-time guest. Colbert and Phillips then held a "Gravitas-Off," a rematch of their popular contest from the first show.
"The Eagle's Nest" was a code name for the Kehlsteinhaus, Hitler's home in the German Alps near Berchtesgaden.
On June 15, 2006, Stephen Colbert disclosed that he is part Chickasaw Indian.
On July 12, 2006, Mort Zuckerman, who recently had been placed On Notice, was the first guest to accept Colbert's challenge to come on the show within 60 days of being placed on the board to get removed. Zuckerman apologized, and was removed from the On Notice board at the end of the show.

Special Performances

Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, April 29, 2006

References

['Daily Show' Correspondent Readies 'The Colbert Report': National Public Radio's Robert Siegel interviews Stephen Colbert,] May 4, 2005
['Daily Show' Personality Gets His Own Platform], The New York Times, May 4, 2005
[TV's Newest Anchor: A Smirk in Progress], The Washington Post, October 10, 2005
[The News Is Funny, as a Correspondent Gets His Own Show], The New York Times, October 12, 2005
[Zap2it Colbert interview] October 15, 2005
[The Colbert Factor: The Daily Show's senior bloviator gets a desk of his own], Slate, October 18, 2005
[Comedy's Colbert Report Gets 1.13 Mil. Viewers], Mediaweek, October 18, 2005
['Daily Show' alum scores with a slap at talking heads], The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 19, 2005 ("What makes the portrayal so funny is that it rings so true...")
[Colbert brings real wit to mock punditry], Detroit News, October 20, 2005
[The wit and sense of 'Colbert Report': Show is smart, funny and a logical offshoot], Media Life, October 20, 2005
['The Colbert Report' succeeds as comedy, opened with strong ratings and seems destined for a long run. What does that tell us about the news business?], Newsweek, October 21, 2005
[Egomaniacal satirist broadcasts Stewart spinoff], Daily Orange, October 21, 2005
['Colbert', Cartoons Break Big for Comedy Central], zap2it.com, October 24, 2005
[Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News], The New York Times, October 25, 2005 (misreports first Word of the Day as "Trustiness"; later publishes a correction, reports that it should have been "Truthiness")
[Colbert Report comes north Nov. 7], Toronto Star, October 31, 2005

External links

Radio

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