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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2419 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 23, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I think Colbert's problem is that he's a sketch comic who kind of fell into political humour because of the Daily Show. He was doing a sort of Bill O'Reilly parody, but The O'Reilly Factor ended in 2017 and lost relevance long before that.

So fundamentally he's not big into thinking about politics and coming up with jokes based on that. He just goes along with whatever the current Dem talking points are and writes jokes around that.

Yeah, he built his reputation during the Bush years as a courageous comic speaking truth to power. Who can forget his appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner?

But Bush left office 16 years ago. Now, instead of speaking truth to power, Colbert is punching down against rubes and rednecks. And it just comes off as cringe.

Stewart seems to have more of his own voice and humanity, whereas Colbert was a monster with no empathy all along.

I think Stewart benefitted from stepping out of the spotlight right before everyone went insane. He was still in "fuck off I'm on vacation" mode during that first round of TDS, and I wonder if that partially inoculated him against the brain rot that hit most of the rest of the late night circuit.

I've never been a fan of his "clown nose on, clown nose off" shtick, but Stewart definitely seems like he's got a bit more perspective nowadays than the rest of his peers.

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