Colbert at the White House

This is somewhat old news, but Stephen Colbert, host of the second-funniest (and oftentimes the funniest) show on television, The Colbert Report (pronounced cole-bare reh-pore), was inexplicably invited to speak at the recent White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, with Dubya in attendance. File this one under: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

For those unfamiliar with his show (Comedy Central, 11:30pm, Mon-Thu), it is to pundit shows as The Daily Show is to the evening news (i.e. it makes fun of them). Colbert positions himself as a Bill O'Reilly type solely to lampoon the Bill O'Reilly types. In doing so, he acts under the guise of a somewhat dim-witted, platitude-spewing Bush supporter, but apparently the person in charge of the dinner missed the nuance and figured Colbert was actually a right-wing shill. Whoops.

The result? Predictable. The jokes were pointed, Bush was visibly annoyed (see below), and the speech is still drawing strong reaction. Some even claim that Colbert crossed the line of free speech, or at least fair play.


Check the video out for yourself: full address

The address was in the great tradition of Jon Stewart's visit to Crossfire (which most likely helped to bring that show down). Opportunistic showboating, but with a larger point. And in this case the target wasn't a crappy cable show but the most powerful man in America, sitting five feet away. Did Colbert cross the line? Considering the setting, he probably did, but he also provided a public service. A catharsis for those who are sick of a President who is always armed with meaningless canned answers to questions he's seen ahead of time, so shielded is he from real public discourse with non-planted participants.

But mostly, it was just funny.