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May 04, 2006
60 Minutes on Colbert
I realize that he may have bombed at the recent White House Correspondents' Association awards dinner, but I'm still a big fan of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. Here is the recent 60 Minutes segment on Colbert (segment 2 and segment 3), which includes a good dose of Colbert's hilarious interviewing techniques.
By the way, one thing that I've always wondered about Colbert -- but that Morley Safer did not ask him in the 60 Minutes piece -- is whether the pronunciation of Colbert's name (prounouced "Cole-bear") on his show is a play on the wonderful Hyacinth Bucket character (pronounced "bouquet" by Hyacinth and "bucket" by everyone else) in the equally hilarious BBC comedy show, "Keeping Up With Appearances"? Anyone know the answer?
Update: In the small world department, turns out that Jeff Skilling's law firm -- O'Melveny & Myers -- has a Colbert connection. One of Colbert's older brothers is Jim Colbert (who pronounced his name with a good, hard "ert"), who was a litigation partner at O'Melveny for approximatey 30 years in Los Angeles. The elder Colbert was known at O'Melveny as a brilliant litigator with -- you guessed it -- a sharp wit.
Posted by Tom at May 4, 2006 08:41 AM
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Comments
He's always pronounced it with the original French pronunciation. The only joke is in pronouncing "Report" the same way. As one of the early promos said, "It's French, bitch." The idea of an O'Reilly clone proudly embracing his French heritage...
Posted by: Dylan at May 4, 2006 10:54 AM
Bombed? He did an amazing job. Simply fantastic.
Perhaps blogcritics said it best:
"It’s one thing to march into the lion’s den and yank a fistful of hairs from his mane. It’s quite another to march into a den full of people who think they’re lions and rub their noses in the fact that they’re nothing more than fat, spayed tabby cats who are less interested in exposing the powerful than they are in curling up by their feet.
“That’s what Stephen Colbert did at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and for his perfidy he will now be subject to their endless mewling and kitty-kat clawing…”
Posted by: will at May 4, 2006 12:35 PM
Tom, I don't understand why the conventional wisdom is that he bombed. I saw a NY Times story that said this. I probably got 50 emails yesterday about it, and the consensus was that it was hilarious and smart.
Posted by: Dan Feather at May 4, 2006 01:18 PM
Dan and Will, I understand the context in which Colbert was performing at the dinner was not the most accomodating, but objectively, I agree with the critics who thought that it was not his best stuff. This is not a comment on the underlying political commentary; I just didn't think his comments were up to Colbert's normal level of wit.
Posted by: Tom K at May 4, 2006 01:32 PM
I see your point. I'm not a television person (much to my wife's chigrin), and I didn't even know who he was until I saw the clip on the internet. I'll have to get her to DVR some of his stuff and see for myself. Thanks & keep up the great work. - Dan
Posted by: Dan Feather at May 4, 2006 01:38 PM
Perhaps Colbert takes he pronunciation cues from Brian Pinhead (pronunced Pen-AYD) in The Tick.
Posted by: Wilbur at May 5, 2006 03:06 PM
"Dan and Will, I understand the context in which Colbert was performing at the dinner was not the most accomodating, but objectively, I agree with the critics who thought that it was not his best stuff. This is not a comment on the underlying political commentary; I just didn't think his comments were up to Colbert's normal level of wit."
Maybe not his best stuff, but remember, he had to tone it down a bit. ;)
Posted by: RedScare at May 7, 2006 08:09 PM
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