Wow. That was a.) fairly funny; b.) fairly reasonable. From The Daily Show? Who would have expected?

No, I think it's from his own show. He's got a show called the Colbert Report or something that runs after Jon Stewart. I imagine the audiences are pretty much the same, though, thus leading to their confusion. They seemed to think it was funny, but were bothered that he wasn't taking the typical Jon Stewart Bush-is-evil position.

It's hard to divine someone's actual politics from a comedy bit, but it is, I think, interesting that he seemed to put teh funnay above politics. He scuffed up both sides based on where the best jokes were.

Which is refreshing.

Strangers with Candy was very un-PC and seemed to have more fun skewering liberal pieties than conservative ones. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure which conservative pieties they actually skewered at all. Well, except that the main character was a junkie whore, but they didn't make that out to be a *good* career decision.

But then a lot of funny liberals understand that there's a lot of humor in skewering liberal pieties. The Simpsons was undoubtedly written 95% by liberals, and yet they did (at least back when I was watching) a pretty even-handed job of skewering both sides. Which, as I think Jonah Goldberg noted, was about as close to "conservative comedy" as we could hope to get, at least until G. Gordon Liddy gets his own sitcom (in which he plays a rightwing radio host with two liberal flower-children daughters to whom he tries to teach "life lessons," like "stop being such a fucking whore all the time.")

Alas, the final word on the matter will not be resolved until Trey Parker and Matt Stone have their say. Hehe

Too funny!

Colbert is satirizing the pro-torture view. oh brother.

quick: who are the great rightwing comedians?

foxworthy...er...shit, who?

leftwing or power-cynical comics: lenny bruce, mort sahl, carlin, redd fox, bill hicks, david cross, richard pryor. etc. etc.

there's a reason why.

same goes for writers, poets, musicians, artists. leftwing seems to have the beauty.

why?

there's a reason why.

Becuase leftism is a joke?

I keed, I keed.

Have to admit, though. Most of those guys you mentioned on the left are very funny. Still, though, does that really say anything about the relative strengths or weaknesses of the respective ideologies?

maybe means art exists as confrontation to prevailing orthodoxies. nothing more.

but, there is a reason.

Perhaps the art of the comedian, yes. But I think the meaning of art in general depends on the creator of the work - and not every artist is interested in confronting power or orthodoxies. Some just want to make paintings, songs or poems that mean something to them.

quick: who are the great rightwing comedians?

Dennis Miler. Colin Quin. Bill Regan.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that a lot of the comics who avoid politics in their act do so because they're rightish in their views, and they know that doesn't play in most big-city venues.

Denis Leary. Nick DiPaolo. Ron White. Jimmy Norton (once you get past the awfulness about hookers and the crinkle-crinkle bag).

Art depends on free association at its core, not logic. Hence the disparity between leftist art and rightist TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS!!

Come on, people… connect the dots!!

And most of the left-wing comics you mentioned are at their worst when their humor is political. Carlin hasn't been funny in years (excepting i movies). He's a bitter old crank. Cross and Hicks are/were brilliant, but both of them have the political worldview of children. Honestly, nothing was sillier than listening to Hicks go on about how "we're all one being". No we're not. Not everyone can sit around, get high and hold hands all day.

Here I am, right after the Islamophobe question mark.

Colbert is primarily lefty, but he can skewer either side if it's funny.

His show is pretty good and I watch it all the time.

It's whole premise is to satirize the O'Reilly factor and shows like it.

He calls it the (phonetically) col-bear re-pore - as if report is a french word. the opening sequence shows an eagle flying, colbert wrapped in the flag, posturing and preening - obviously poking fun at the implied jingoistic nature of some shows on the right side.

he even has a daily feature that's a lot like o'reilly's talking points segment.

his daily show reports were always consistantly funny - but he's always played the clueless establishment apoligist - stating things that incriminate the powerful as if it's business as usual and above criticism.

Actually, the format of Colbert's show reminds me most of that show by Tucker Carlson, the bowtie wearing prissy little faux conservative.

there's a reason why.

I'd guess it's a side-effect of the whole urban/rural political divide.

Barbra Steisand opens her mouth and sticks her foot in

There's also a football game? Classic.

I think the real reason for the quizzical applause (or absence) is that its not quite clear how the routine is hurting Bush. Its not reinforcing any particular version that the left is pushing this week. And that's really all that matters.

Oh, oh, oh. Pick me! I know why every human endeavor of beauty, truth and truth, beauty is dominated by leftwingers! Its cause republicans are dumb. Right? Uh, dumb and heartless?

It actually makes me stop and reflect about how deeply enriching it would be to invite that aspiring-comedian busboy to my table to drink from his fountain of worldiness. But, that fucking aspiring-sitcom writer is taking too damn long getting my vino. And I get mad pissed when I don't have something to wash down my vittles. I guess living on someone's floor for 5 years in LA takes its toll.

And actually, the only reason why you feel so confident in saying that lefties are teh only funnay or smrt people is because they are the ones crammed down our throats. They are promoted and subsidized because they are "cutting edge" with their rebeliousness. I mean, how long are we gonna have Maraget Cho or Jeanine Garafolo put on us? Lefties get promoted while "conservatives" are on the outside. Mel Gibson has to self finance his films while Rush, with an audience in the tens of millions, is never given the air time that a sitcom co-star is given.