Scheiber on Colbert

Noam, as you may know if you follow my Honors blog, is a Tulane grad and was just down here for our Honors Week. I have a great amount of respect for him and thoroughly enjoyed his visit. He, however, did not enjoy Colbert’s WHCD performance.

The Plank

I’m a big Stephen Colbert fan, a huge Bush detractor, and I think the White House press corps has been out to lunch for much of the last five years. (Though, unlike many in the blogosphere, I don’t think that’s because White House reporters are lazy or stupid.) That should have made me the ideal audience-member for Colbert’s performance at this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). As it happens, though, I laughed out loud maybe twice during Colbert’s entire 20-odd minute routine. Colbert’s problem, blogosphere conspiracy theories notwithstanding, is that he just wasn’t very entertaining. Most of the funny lines had been recycled from his show; the new material was all pretty tired–including a way-too-long video presentation whose big joke was that … Helen Thomas is old and batty. (Stop me if you’ve heard that one.)

I dunno. I thought it was very funny; not too hard or even too soft on anyone. The last video was too long. The material may have been recycled, but we all know the Pres doesn’t stay up late enough to see the Report so that’s ok…

(Via TNR “The Plank”.)

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