Colbert Livens Up War Zone, Newsweekly
This week, Stephen Colbert is bringing laughter and joy to a devastated quagmire of misery and destruction: Newsweek. Oh, and Iraq.
The comedian guest-edited this week’s issue of the newly redesigned US newsweekly. And, of course, it begins with editor Jon Meacham explaining the joke, because the old people who read “magazines” might not get it, otherwise. “Everything he did in character is signed, so there should be no confusion about what is NEWSWEEK and what is Colbert.” Oh, good, we wouldn’t want any unexplained absurdism or fun in this issue.
Colbert’s editor’s note is better, at least.
Of course, guest editing is more than just sitting around tanning myself by the gleam of Fareed Zakaria’s teeth. I set the editorial agenda, assigned stories and yelled at Peter Parker to get me more photos of that web-slinging vigilante, Spider-Man. He’s a menace!
I took advantage of my powerful new perch and published all my letters to the editor that NEWSWEEK had rejected, provided my Conventional Wisdom, took a red pencil to Meacham’s editorial foofaraw and took the bias out of the columnist bios. Most important, I sent NEWSWEEK’s reporters to find out whatever happened to Iraq. Unfortunately, this meant cutting the cover story they had planned: “Hey, Have You Heard About This Thing Called ‘Twitter?’ “
Shit, Time, we hope no one retweets that ZING @ you, or whatever one does, exactly.
So. The issue is all about Iraq, and it features a serious cover story on the war by Fareed Zakaria, the official spokesman of the Neo-Liberal Geo-Political Consensus. The issue is all about Iraq, in fact, because that is where Colbert took this show this weekend.
The location of Colbert’s “Persian Gulf” trip was an easily-guessed secret. And, of course, his performing his easy-to-grasp satirical routine for members of the armed forces means a lot of condescending attempts to figure out whether our child-like troops really “get it.”
The troops didn’t seem to care much about the meta-ness of Mr. Colbert’s visit, nor were they uneasy about his political shtick as they laughed at the gags about clearing Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and last year’s shoe-throwing incident involving the man who was then their commander in chief as much as at Mr. Colbert’s self-deprecating jokes about his lack of fortitude.
“I know his persona is all pro-American,” Lieutenant Klempan said, trying to explain the math of Stephen Colbert and “Stephen Colbert” and which one of them had come for what reason. Finally he gave up.
“I’m glad either one of them showed up,” he said.
Yeah, you know, the thing about being a good comedian is that you are funny to everyone, and not just New York Times readers.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
LMAO...I love Colbert. He is too damn funny. And yes he borderline absurd. Just what the country needs during these tough times!
@Iceland Spar: none of what you said actually means anything in terms of perception and labels anymore, though.
that is why it's best to just be a communist.
No comedian is funny to everyone.
rhys1882
This haircut reminds of the one that no-talent singer Cassie got. The one who is schtumping Diddy and has the itty bitty titties that were all over the internet recently.
heywhat
@ninety_nine: I sincerely hope no one carves a farewell message to me on their head after I die. I might come back to haunt them until they get rid of it.
The other side of his head says "I ROCK".
@ninety_nine: Heh. When you don't care enough to get a tattoo, and think the relevance will go stale...
@ninety_nine: I immediately thought of Mr. T.
@Iceland Spar: Yeah, but he has a Muslim name, so it balances out.
Bad timing for the art director of the cover. This is entirely coincidental, but the first thing I thought of when I saw the above.
Um, Fareed Zakaria is most definitly not a neo-liberal, he was one of the orignators of the Iraqi war and in the days after 9/11 participated in somewhat secret foreign policy conference during which he advocated the otherthrow of Saddam (something he now conveniently leaves out of his bio, but which Woodward and Hersh have both documented). GPS also tilts a bit right, with Niall Ferguson being a frequent guest and Kissinger and his proteges being frequent guests.
Iceland Spar
But does Christopher Hitchens think he's funny? Because no one else's opinion on humor really matters.
DahlELama
@rhys1882: Some gay comics are funny to a general audience and "funny" to homophobes. Zing!
@Ken Elwell: That's what struck me about his broadcast from Iraq, that he was sort of sending up the war but still paying tribute to the soldiers, very sincerely. Deftly done.
This cat, regardless of his political beliefs, has done more to promote pro-soldier charities and organizations through his show than all the Fox pundits put together.
This always impressed me, even when his satire wears a bit thin, but if you do a show 4x a week, it will get a bit Regis and Kathified - kudos to the writers for keeping it fresh for so long.
It's important to recognize that USO has been out there doing their thing since this began. Go to Colbertnation.com and kick a few bucks towards a classroom project for soldier's kids.
And then you don't have to have that stupid ribbon on your car messing up the paint.
Ken Elwell
the guy is an imbecile, overrated to say the least.
@rhys1882: I don't think it was everyone = every person on eart, but everyone = not just 18-24yr old white males, with college educations, whose parents make between 35 and 90 thousand dollars a year. Or, more precisely, the troops aren't retarded. I read the article this morning, and nearly went insane. According to the NYT's writer, if you've ever fought in a war, you can't possibly understand politics, or have a functioning brain. Suck it NYT's, I'll never be sorry I canceled my subscription.
homovegetarian