Beyond Satire.

By now it should be evident that those who portray themselves, or allow themselves to be portrayed as courageous for pointing at pointy-heads in the government or media are actually those who are most worthy of ridicule.

I have taken a moratorium from political blogging here because I find nothing that deserves attention. Fortunately or not, others are still banging out the posts if that's what you desire. Joe Gandelman, always on it seems, has a long post on Steve Colbert's performance at the Correspondent Dinner last night. I always read Joe, and find him both insightful and an interesting read. But here, I can't agree.

In the comments, one will find praise for Colbert for speaking truth to power, or whatever cliche one wished to use. However, Colbert (who I find very, very funny) said a few funny things, but seems to have forgotten that it's a failing prospect to attempt to direct satire at those who are beyond it.

Similarly, it has become tiresome to hear talk of courage in this case, as if Colbert is in some fear for his life, but chose to stand against the fascist state and mock the president and media. Rubbish. The easiest place in the world to be snarky is Washington D.C. The Capitol virtually runs on snark. I pointed out that courage would be exemplified by an Iraqi mocking Saddam (when still in office) where speaking against the government carried very real danger.

The other point that begs to be made is that the shrieking about police states, etc. demonstrates just how humorless much of Colbert's audience is. There is less comedy being made than the fiction that Colbert and Jon Stewart "speak" for some voiceless mass. In the age of the ubiquitous opinion, screaming at the top of one's lungs that one's speech is being stolen is absurd and in itself, the best form of satire practiced today.

-Daniel

Comments

[Dunbar]

"Dunbar, you are half right when I say that the Bushies are beyond satire. The other side of that is that at some point it doesn't take genius to satirize what has become in itself a satire."

Daniel, I totally agree with you there!

[John]

Don Imus was far more direct in his shots at Clinton 10 years ago, but the reaction was pretty much the same as the reaction to Colbert, except that you can flip the political viewpoints -- those who disliked Clinton loved Imus' speech, those who liked the president thought Imus was a jerk for doing what he did, and a few on both sides who thought the Correspondents' dinner wasn't the place for that type of routine also were mad about the routine.

But the main point that Imus' crew made to him on the radio in the days following the show was that his routine bombed in Washington, because it was supposed to get more laughs than angry stares. I doubt Colbert went to the corrspondents dinner with any different idea than Imus that his routine was going to get a better reaction than it did, though we'll see if he works the reaction into his monologue on Monday's show (if he stays in his O'Reilly personna he'll have to attack the attackers, but there is a way to do that while recongnizing that your routine mostly fell flat on Saturday. We'll see if he has enough stones to write that type of self-depricating opening for the show).

[vet222]

If that doesn't take courage, I honestly don't know what does. I was actually scared for him!

Duuude, you are so right! Like the Bush would stand up and order the Secret Service to pistol whip him. Or maybe have Dick Cheney pull out his bird gun and shoot the guy. Or maybe have the CIA grab him and fly him to Dagikistan and have him tortured in a secret Valery Plame prison. Or maybe fly him to Florida and tie him to a space shuttle rocket and see him burned up in the launch. Wow that is really the way it all works, just like in Enemy of the State dude. Man you are so right. Just like Enemy of the State. Or maybe he would behead him. Bush would stand up and use a scimitar and just behead the dude right there and that would show what kind of country that this has become. Man this is evil, just like enemy of the state and like Dukes of Hazard, man. Its just a fascist oppressive climate we are in like in Matrix. Yeah, I took the blue pill man. It was a bad trip, just like Enemy of the State and Ellen Brockovitch, you know man. Like when she flashed her cleavage at the evil dude? And then he pulled out his scimitar, no wait.. No it really was like Enemy of the State when they killed Will Smith. I really miss that guy. They are so evil, you know just like Matrix and they are every where. I bet that guy Colbert is missing tomorrow, and they find his head in the San Fancisco Bay, just like Dirty Harry you know. He is just feeling lucky because he spoke truth to power just like Will Smith, and like Erin Brokovitch, and the flying nun remember man?

[Chiaroscuro]

Perhaps I'm just dim, but I don't understand the point of this entire post. It seems to be an excoriation of those who applaud Colbert's courage in delivering a scathing takedown of both Bush and the Washington press corps to their faces.

"Colbert's wasn't satire because I got it. Or didn't get it. If you read carefully, you will see that my scorn is for those who are elevating Colbert to Twainhood much more than for Colbert himself."

Why? Why is it important to say this? Why is it important to deflate the elation that many people feel that someone--anyone--got into the room and said what needed to be said to people who usually hear only their own voices? In the context of the occasion, it was brilliantly subversive.

I personally don't think Colbert expected laughs. I don't think he was playing to his cable audience either. I think he saw an opportunity and seized it to attack the powerful on their own turf. It was far beyond satire; it was political protest in the form of a stink bomb in the midst of the festivities.

I won't discount his courage because he didn't face down tanks or get whisked away by secret police. We're not there yet. But if you don't think it takes a certain kind of courage to tell the most powerful political leader on earth to his face that he's a fraud, and to skewer his journalistic courtiers as lapdogs while they stare stone-faced, then you reveal a lack of imagination that you're passing off as sangfroid.

There isn't a Bush opponent who doesn't dream of doing the same thing, but it took five years until someone had the cojones to do it. Colbert managed to get past the reflexive respect for a man who deserves no respect whatsoever and I thank him for doing so.

[two_shoes]

Getting in a "Rove is a homo who's hot for me" jab with the President right there is pretty bold? No?

I'd be interested in hearing what bits people considered "not funny on any level", without resorting to blanket characterizations or appeals to timing-issues.

I think the material holds up, especially on re-view.

[Jimmy Smith]

Does anyone have a link to the complete Colbert bit? The stuff I've seen is neither funny nor very critical. I'd like to hear this "speaking truth to power" stuff that so many people are raving about. The closest I can find is some lame statement about not revealing NSA wire taping and secret prisons because "they are depressing."

But then I'm not some genius who thinks we went to war for oil, or because we are racist.

[VMC]

Not sure of your background, Daniel, but if you can send me some video of you giving the President and the entire White House Press Corps the reaming they enjoyed from Colbert, I'll reevaluate. Far as I can see, the guy has got some big nuts.

Cheers,
Scott

[Jimmy Smith]

Okay. Now I've seen the entire thing, and it struck me as mainly leftwing lameness. If Colbert really doesn't know why we went into Iraq, then he's a Michael Moore type. If he really thinks our grandchildren won't know what glaciers are, he's not very intelligent. On the other hand, maybe he was mocking the left with some of that stuff. Like, gee, the press hasn't been promoting catastrophic global climate change at all.

I actually sort of liked the press secretary video, because I thought both Fliescher and McClennan were horrible.

And the McCain eating his salad with a spoon was mildly funny, and also seemed to mock the whole "McCain is a Maverick", because we all know that it takes a maverick to restrict a citizens political expression.

[Frederick]

"Screaming at the top of one's lungs that one's speech is being stolen is absurd and in itself, the best form of satire practiced today."

If the railing against affirmative action, choice, and religious persecution that I see day after day on Right-wing blogs are any indicator, this is one satirical world we live in.

[VMC]

Jimmy, I PVR'd . the whole speech.

It's in wmv format and is 48mb big. Sorry, no player on my site, but you can download it.

Cheers,
Scott

[natasha]

Regarding the backwash comment, Colbert actually said that it referred to the 32% who approved of Bush:

"... Pay no attention to people who say the glass is half empty...Because 32 percent means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass, is my point. But I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash. ..."

There seem to be a fair handful of people commenting here who didn't bother to listen/read carefully.

[Christopher Scheer]

I followed a link to here that was supposed to be saying something intelligent. Where is it?

[mai name]

Gimme a break. Yes, it did take courage for Colbert to put out that kind of schtick. It is the POTUS,only the most powerful man in the world. If you don't get that then you are stoopid. The only comment I would add as a criticism of the performance would be that I believe one would have to have watched one of his shows to totally get the joke because you would have to get the BOR persona. He was extremely sharp but you know what? You would need something sharp to get through to Bush's skull. And,the audience didn't laugh because guess what? Colbert exposed them for what they've become -syncophantic stenographers. One last thing - Scalia obviously got the joke so maybe you actually had to have a higher IQ that bubbleheads like Norah ODonnell possess to get the joke.

[Steve Collins]

Of course he is risking something: his career, access, a large piece of potential viewership. People don't get invited back to Correspondents Dinners after doing things like this. I think it was brave. He's not a politician, he's a comedian. The heart of his satire was honest, his conduct was completely in character, and I found it very funny. I think that history will smile on his performance, especially given the way that contemporary media gives the powerful a pass.

It's O.K. to be pointed in your humor from time to time. I'd ask you this: did you disagree with the points behind his jokes? If not, maybe you should re-examine your own reaction. The President and his neo-con friends don't get uncomfortable when they pointedly lie to our faces, why should we be so uncomfortable when someone gently points out the truth to theirs?

[paddler]

Funny? Not a word I have ever associated with this administration. When you live in a bubble surrounded by yes men a trip to the real world must have come as a shock. Unfortunately for the president Colbert was the one hosting his coming out party. If the president was uncomfortable well... the truthiness hurts.

[jt]

If it's so easy to do what he did, why has no one else done it? Why is the press corps so supine? His most pointed barbs, in fact, were not targeted at the administration but the press. That takes guts, and that's why they weren't laughing harder - it was too close to home for the media elite.

I didn't hear Colbert "shrieking about police states", nor do I hear his fans doing so. But the fact that so many take his satire so harshly is a sign that too many of us are secretly longing for one.

[rm]

Sometimes the comedian is the only one who can find permission or opportunity to tell the King the truth. It has the form of a joke, but it's deadly serious. Unfortunately for us, our King doesn't learn from the encounter like King Lear:

Foole.
If a mans braines were in's heeles, wert not in
danger of kybes?

Lear.
I Boy.

Foole.
Then I prythee be merry, thy wit shall not go
slip-shod.

Lear.
Ha, ha, ha.

Fool.
Shalt see thy other Daughter will vse thee kind-ly,
for though she's as like this, as a Crabbe's like an
Apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.

Lear.
What can'st tell Boy?

Foole.
She will taste as like this as, a Crabbe do's to a
Crab: thou canst, tell why ones nose stands i'th' middle
on's face?

Lear.
No.

Foole.
Why to keepe ones eyes of either side 's nose,
that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

Lear.
I did her wrong.

Foole.
Can'st tell how an Oyster makes his shell?

Lear.
No.

Foole.
Nor I neither; but I can tell why a Snaile ha's
a house.

Lear.
Why?

Foole.
Why to put's head in, not to giue it away to his
daughters, and leaue his hornes without a case.

Lear.
I will forget my Nature, so kind a Father? Be
my Horsses ready?

Foole.
Thy Asses are gone about 'em; the reason why
the seuen Starres are no mo then seuen, is a pretty reason.

Lear.
Because they are not eight.

Foole.
Yes indeed, thou would'st make a good Foole.

Lear.
To tak't againe perforce; Monster Ingratitude!

Foole.
If thou wert my Foole Nunckle, Il'd haue thee
beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear.
How's that?

Foole.
Thou shouldst not haue bin old, till thou hadst
bin wise.

[bluerose]

Steve Colbert's speech at the Washington Press dinner burns out of the universe like a first and great artwork of the twenty first century. Its an original comet of complexity and provocation that at the very least awakens the intelligensia of all political persuasions and slaps at the hysteria of fear thats been recently fed on a nation being slowly weaned of its freedom.

[djrichard]

The Bush administration's relationship to the MSM is symbiotic: it's about the administration giving and withholding access, it's about the MSM monetizing their subscribers as a channel to market. Speaking truth to power is about upsetting that apple cart, which to be honest is not a real risk for Colbert himself. Colbert's real tour de force is in exposing the MSM's weakness to do anything about upsetting that apple cart - it's their drug addiction.

Any damage that Colbert did to Bush is collateral and just for fun - it's like saying to the MSM, nah nah, look at what I can do - you pussys can only dream of doing something like this. The MSM was the real target. Bush was just collateral damage. I loved it.

[Carrick Talmadge]

It was supposed to be a comedic piece first and foremost. I like Colbert, but he just bombed, pure and simple. Personal courage? GMAB.