The only way I can understand turns like Colbert's outside a comic book is to think he never wrote his own material and barely understood what he was doing. Like a dumb actor who, for some magical reason, is fantastic at reading his lines but has no idea what they actually mean.
Think about it: he's not a writer, never wrote his own standup routines, and apparently never had an original thought in his head.
I'm sure it's not that simple but there is some truth in it. I mean, seriously, how does a guy go from being that guy at the White House correspondents dinner to whatever the fuck he is now?
Is humanity that malleable or was he never quite what we thought he was? I think the answer is -- both.
I also think the answer is a perhaps a begrudging "both" haha. I have no doubt that the type of empty vessel/stuffed suit you describe is terrifyingly common, especially in the upper echelons of Hollywood and the MSM.
With Colbert specifically, I'm a bit torn. He was included on the early Emmy wins for writing on the Daily Show, but it was big team, and I've read a few accounts of him being an active co-writer for other funny shows like my beloved Strangers with Candy, but it certainly seems plausible (even likely now) that Sedaris and Dinello did the heavy lifting there. Dinello would follow him The Colbert Report / Late Night gigs though, which means that then Dinello must have gone mad too over time haha.
That is one of the great questions raised by the smash-hit sensation Harvey Awards! Do they showcase how malleable people are, or do they reveal who people really were along?
“You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they’re capable of anything.” - Noah Cross
Chinatown! One of the greats. John Huston is perhaps my favorite writer/director. Heaven Knows, Mr Alison, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, and so many others. He makes truly great art full of humanity that poses the great moral questions.
That line from Chinatown haunts me. It's the glib assertion made by all moral monsters that justifies every horrible act they commit. And no, we are not all capable of anything. It's a choice. We make choices and whether you're a more honest monster like Noah Cross, or a weasel like Stephen Colbert, our choices mark us.
I'm not pretending to be a moral paragon: I've made some very bad choices in my life but I know I have to live with them, atone how I can and try to be better. Colbert sits there all smug like the cat who ate the canary, pretending he's fighting for the good and just while raking in millions shitting out propaganda for the establishment. I can understand Noah Cross -- he has little pretense really. Unfortunately our fight is against a thousand slimy Colberts.
Frankly, I have little else to add to your eloquent reply haha. You nailed it, from that murderer's row of Huston films to the brilliant analysis of conniving Colbertian evil contrasted with the stark brutality of Cross's proclamation. The line has always haunted me as well. I agree that we all have agency, but I can never fully dismiss Cross's sneering assertion that--though the outer boundaries may shift--it is only in the crucible of extraordinary circumstances that we are truly tested.
"We all make choices, but in the end... our choices make us." - From the desk of Andrew Ryan
His entire career is based on smarmy reaction shots. He had one joke on SWC, the gay panic bathroom scene. If you saw Colbert, you knew the gay panic bathroom scene was coming right up. He was just a waste of space.
“Remember kids. Smoking marijuana means you will spend much of your time hanging out and laughing with your friends.”
And the bell on Amy’s … that she could ring for the right person….
100%! Could not agree more. His whole career is, ironically, a joke, but, unironically, not the funny kind. And Sedaris was indeed comedy freaking GOLD! I laugh so goddam hard watching her in that show to this day haha
The bell! Classic! And extremely disturbing. I had no idea her monologue was improved off the animation, Outstanding. I always loved the lie detector test ep to where they ask her her favorite food and she tries to sounds sophisticated by saying “Duck a l’orange!” but then it buzzes her and defeatedly admits “meatballs.” haha her delivery was on another level in that show.
Another round of acerbic wit and faultless truth telling. Glad the writer’s strike has managed to erase this sellout and the rest of the late night manipulators off the screen.
Thank you so much for all the support! And yeah if that Late Night trash was the quality of writing "people" were giving us, then I say we may as well give Skynet a shot haha
Or can we have Johnny Carson back? Robo A.I. Carson?
Colbert was the worst thing on Strangers With Candy. He had one note, the same one he still uses, and it got old really fast. The closeted bathroom fakeout scenes were repetitive and the only joke was that there was no payoff to the whole thing.
Sedaris was gold. Gold! “I stole the TV!” That whole opening monologue was ad libbed from the animation.
The celebrity CULTure appears to be fertile ground for gathering, planting, and grooming crops of henchmen and promoters who service the deep state agenda.
Awesome essay Apollo! “Whew. So, no. No, Colbert would, in fact, not be bringing that same acerbic energy to his sit-down with war criminal Barack Obama as he did with war criminal George W. Bush.” I think when the Twin Towers came down an entity won war. Obama…OPPS, I mean Osama — I always do that for some reason, I get Obama and Osama mixed up because of their names and they also look alike. 😏 Then there’s that Hussein thing in there, so sometimes I think of Saddam when I meant Obama. 🙈 Silly me. Anyway, back to what I was saying. I think Obama won the 911 war. Maybe that’s why Bush was hiding behind a book at a kindergarten when the USA tried to hold on to her last breathe. Colbert’s in the know. He’s got to be on the correct side. That’s my take, as crazy as it may sound.
Thank you very much for the read and for the gracious comment, Charlotte! I sincerely appreciate it, and I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed the piece.
I get those characters mixed up as well haha. I don't think your take sounds crazy at all. I'm not sure if we'll ever get the bottom of the rabbit hole that is 9/11. Even that book, "The Pet Goat," that G-Dubs was hiding behind had some odd things align (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWqfPeerbo). At the very least, it was clearly an inside job/false flag that benefited many people financially and enabled the progression of our post-Patriot Act surveillance state. Next level down would seem to imply predictive programming (https://the-lone-gunmen.fandom.com/wiki/Pre_9/11_controver). And beyond that I suppose we can speculate as to the degree to which occult practices or hyperstition played a role. I've been looking into this for years, and I still turn up new info and interesting theories!
EIther way, yeah, Colbert is a no talent hack and soulless shill who has done incalculable harm to the populace. It is so sad.
A most intriguing inquiry, my good man! I have consulted with the committee, and I am delighted to inform you that they are indeed willing to consider posthumous nominations, especially for lifetime (death) achievement awards.
As such, if you would like to nominate someone who embodied that Harvey Dent spirit before they departed this world, feel free to submit them for consideration!
A most intriguing inquiry, my good man! I have consulted with the committee, and I am delighted to inform you that they are indeed willing to consider posthumous nominations, especially for lifetime (death) achievement awards.
As such, if you would like to nominate someone who embodied that Harvey Dent spirit before they departed this world, feel free to submit them for consideration!
An eminently worthy candidate! I greatly appreciate the suggestion, and I shall gladly pass along your nomination to the committee for further review. I don't want to spoil anything, but there are some other recipients in the queue, but the Good Senator shall certainly receive due consideration.
Fair is fair and an American hero that deserts his ship becomes a pow, claims glory for sticking it out, elected senator,turns his thumb down and hob knobs with AZOV Nazis with sidekick Lindsey starting a war with Russia could easily be overlooked. Thanks for consideration.
How am I just stumbling into this?! So good! I hail from Chicago and many of the Second City alumni have turned out to be the greatest covid hall monitors of the pandemic, but none, absolutely none, come close to the well deserved Harvey Dent award winner here. Well done, sir. (If you’re a sir. I don’t even know.)
Dear God, it's even worse than I thought! I was only ever able to make it about a third of the way through a single such performance, and even that left me catatonic for weeks followed by months of heavy drug use and intense therapy sessions. I shudder to think of the damage inflicted on the masses by repeated viewings of that horror show.
Great piece.
The only way I can understand turns like Colbert's outside a comic book is to think he never wrote his own material and barely understood what he was doing. Like a dumb actor who, for some magical reason, is fantastic at reading his lines but has no idea what they actually mean.
Think about it: he's not a writer, never wrote his own standup routines, and apparently never had an original thought in his head.
I'm sure it's not that simple but there is some truth in it. I mean, seriously, how does a guy go from being that guy at the White House correspondents dinner to whatever the fuck he is now?
Is humanity that malleable or was he never quite what we thought he was? I think the answer is -- both.
Great point!
I also think the answer is a perhaps a begrudging "both" haha. I have no doubt that the type of empty vessel/stuffed suit you describe is terrifyingly common, especially in the upper echelons of Hollywood and the MSM.
With Colbert specifically, I'm a bit torn. He was included on the early Emmy wins for writing on the Daily Show, but it was big team, and I've read a few accounts of him being an active co-writer for other funny shows like my beloved Strangers with Candy, but it certainly seems plausible (even likely now) that Sedaris and Dinello did the heavy lifting there. Dinello would follow him The Colbert Report / Late Night gigs though, which means that then Dinello must have gone mad too over time haha.
That is one of the great questions raised by the smash-hit sensation Harvey Awards! Do they showcase how malleable people are, or do they reveal who people really were along?
“You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they’re capable of anything.” - Noah Cross
Chinatown! One of the greats. John Huston is perhaps my favorite writer/director. Heaven Knows, Mr Alison, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, and so many others. He makes truly great art full of humanity that poses the great moral questions.
That line from Chinatown haunts me. It's the glib assertion made by all moral monsters that justifies every horrible act they commit. And no, we are not all capable of anything. It's a choice. We make choices and whether you're a more honest monster like Noah Cross, or a weasel like Stephen Colbert, our choices mark us.
I'm not pretending to be a moral paragon: I've made some very bad choices in my life but I know I have to live with them, atone how I can and try to be better. Colbert sits there all smug like the cat who ate the canary, pretending he's fighting for the good and just while raking in millions shitting out propaganda for the establishment. I can understand Noah Cross -- he has little pretense really. Unfortunately our fight is against a thousand slimy Colberts.
https://media.giphy.com/media/kFIfiwvzJjbUsNbIg5/giphy.gif
Frankly, I have little else to add to your eloquent reply haha. You nailed it, from that murderer's row of Huston films to the brilliant analysis of conniving Colbertian evil contrasted with the stark brutality of Cross's proclamation. The line has always haunted me as well. I agree that we all have agency, but I can never fully dismiss Cross's sneering assertion that--though the outer boundaries may shift--it is only in the crucible of extraordinary circumstances that we are truly tested.
"We all make choices, but in the end... our choices make us." - From the desk of Andrew Ryan
His entire career is based on smarmy reaction shots. He had one joke on SWC, the gay panic bathroom scene. If you saw Colbert, you knew the gay panic bathroom scene was coming right up. He was just a waste of space.
“Remember kids. Smoking marijuana means you will spend much of your time hanging out and laughing with your friends.”
And the bell on Amy’s … that she could ring for the right person….
100%! Could not agree more. His whole career is, ironically, a joke, but, unironically, not the funny kind. And Sedaris was indeed comedy freaking GOLD! I laugh so goddam hard watching her in that show to this day haha
The bell! Classic! And extremely disturbing. I had no idea her monologue was improved off the animation, Outstanding. I always loved the lie detector test ep to where they ask her her favorite food and she tries to sounds sophisticated by saying “Duck a l’orange!” but then it buzzes her and defeatedly admits “meatballs.” haha her delivery was on another level in that show.
I sincerely appreciate the restack! I hope people enjoy the gala :D
Colbert’s team got the whip and found it suited them.
Sigh.
I suspect there’s wisdom in another Batman villain, where you watch the world burn because that’s what it fucking deserves.
Did you just seemlessly blend a Dark Knight Joker reference with a Joaquin Phoenix Joker line, you sly devil, you?
I do, on occasion, approach clever.
I find it is safest to approach clever veeeery sneakily and from behind.
Another round of acerbic wit and faultless truth telling. Glad the writer’s strike has managed to erase this sellout and the rest of the late night manipulators off the screen.
Thank you so much for all the support! And yeah if that Late Night trash was the quality of writing "people" were giving us, then I say we may as well give Skynet a shot haha
Or can we have Johnny Carson back? Robo A.I. Carson?
Colbert was the worst thing on Strangers With Candy. He had one note, the same one he still uses, and it got old really fast. The closeted bathroom fakeout scenes were repetitive and the only joke was that there was no payoff to the whole thing.
Sedaris was gold. Gold! “I stole the TV!” That whole opening monologue was ad libbed from the animation.
The celebrity CULTure appears to be fertile ground for gathering, planting, and grooming crops of henchmen and promoters who service the deep state agenda.
Ah remember this, very c*ntish behaviours.
Awesome essay Apollo! “Whew. So, no. No, Colbert would, in fact, not be bringing that same acerbic energy to his sit-down with war criminal Barack Obama as he did with war criminal George W. Bush.” I think when the Twin Towers came down an entity won war. Obama…OPPS, I mean Osama — I always do that for some reason, I get Obama and Osama mixed up because of their names and they also look alike. 😏 Then there’s that Hussein thing in there, so sometimes I think of Saddam when I meant Obama. 🙈 Silly me. Anyway, back to what I was saying. I think Obama won the 911 war. Maybe that’s why Bush was hiding behind a book at a kindergarten when the USA tried to hold on to her last breathe. Colbert’s in the know. He’s got to be on the correct side. That’s my take, as crazy as it may sound.
Thank you very much for the read and for the gracious comment, Charlotte! I sincerely appreciate it, and I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed the piece.
I get those characters mixed up as well haha. I don't think your take sounds crazy at all. I'm not sure if we'll ever get the bottom of the rabbit hole that is 9/11. Even that book, "The Pet Goat," that G-Dubs was hiding behind had some odd things align (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWqfPeerbo). At the very least, it was clearly an inside job/false flag that benefited many people financially and enabled the progression of our post-Patriot Act surveillance state. Next level down would seem to imply predictive programming (https://the-lone-gunmen.fandom.com/wiki/Pre_9/11_controver). And beyond that I suppose we can speculate as to the degree to which occult practices or hyperstition played a role. I've been looking into this for years, and I still turn up new info and interesting theories!
EIther way, yeah, Colbert is a no talent hack and soulless shill who has done incalculable harm to the populace. It is so sad.
Thank you @Apollo's Lyre
I greatly appreciate the links and I will check them out. 🤗✨💖
This is how they do it. This is THE way they brainwash the masses. Celebrities worshiping their agenda. How could they be wrong?
If the deceased are unable to arise for the award, does that disqualify them from nomination.
A most intriguing inquiry, my good man! I have consulted with the committee, and I am delighted to inform you that they are indeed willing to consider posthumous nominations, especially for lifetime (death) achievement awards.
As such, if you would like to nominate someone who embodied that Harvey Dent spirit before they departed this world, feel free to submit them for consideration!
A most intriguing inquiry, my good man! I have consulted with the committee, and I am delighted to inform you that they are indeed willing to consider posthumous nominations, especially for lifetime (death) achievement awards.
As such, if you would like to nominate someone who embodied that Harvey Dent spirit before they departed this world, feel free to submit them for consideration!
Senator John McCain
An eminently worthy candidate! I greatly appreciate the suggestion, and I shall gladly pass along your nomination to the committee for further review. I don't want to spoil anything, but there are some other recipients in the queue, but the Good Senator shall certainly receive due consideration.
Fair is fair and an American hero that deserts his ship becomes a pow, claims glory for sticking it out, elected senator,turns his thumb down and hob knobs with AZOV Nazis with sidekick Lindsey starting a war with Russia could easily be overlooked. Thanks for consideration.
Good points. He does have quite the resume; you make a very strong case for the dearly departed senator to jump up a few spots in the queue ;)
The change in Colbert suggests everything but conscience or integrity.
How am I just stumbling into this?! So good! I hail from Chicago and many of the Second City alumni have turned out to be the greatest covid hall monitors of the pandemic, but none, absolutely none, come close to the well deserved Harvey Dent award winner here. Well done, sir. (If you’re a sir. I don’t even know.)
Dear God, it's even worse than I thought! I was only ever able to make it about a third of the way through a single such performance, and even that left me catatonic for weeks followed by months of heavy drug use and intense therapy sessions. I shudder to think of the damage inflicted on the masses by repeated viewings of that horror show.