1. Comment #21985 by melisande on February 12, 2007 at 4:10 am

Dang, you already plucked my favorite line right out and posted it!
That was a brilliant bit of dialog, there.

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2. Comment #21988 by plastictowel on February 12, 2007 at 5:04 am

Christ I'm stumped. For one, I love Colbert, he's hysterical and holds the best satire character around. However the man is actually catholic outside his show and that vexes me so much I want to pass out. Second...why is Chris Hedges a Christian...I don't get these people! If they see all the wrong, what's with the constant reinterpreting till it's right!

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3. Comment #22005 by Kristian Z on February 12, 2007 at 9:06 am

Not only is Colbert a Catholic, but he even teaches Sunday school!

plastictowel, I'm stumped too. So often do I run into Christians saying "I'm Christian, but ..." and provide some excuse for whatever it is they find they have to excuse their moronic religion for being assosiated with this time, yet won't convince them to dismiss their religion altogether.

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4. Comment #22029 by James Carroll on February 12, 2007 at 12:30 pm

Maybe Colbert is a Catholic just to make his character a little more believable...

Ha, I have no clue. It doesn't make sense to me either.

But regardless, he's a funny man, and this was a good segment. Hedges did a great job of talking about this.

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5. Comment #22042 by Sancus on February 12, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Sorry, most of the Founding Fathers were Protestant, others were Catholic, but the smartest ones were Deists.

Colbert is Catholic because he's a self-loathing postmodernist whack-job. He's funny when he's not just plain sad.

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6. Comment #22082 by Shaun1018 on February 12, 2007 at 10:17 pm

I am still surprised by the people whom don't know Steven is satire, it's no different than Ali G or Borat.

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7. Comment #22252 by DNAtheist on February 13, 2007 at 5:50 pm

Sancus,

I know of protestant and deist Founding Fathers, but which ones were Catholic?

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8. Comment #22358 by Lionel A on February 15, 2007 at 4:35 am

Colbert Report.

What an appalling programme, raucous, with silly hand clapping routine. 'Let's do it come on …' to loud music, and so puerile. This is one for Richard to avoid for the presenter's ego is clearly much larger than his intellect, he considers the US to be a Christian Nation, what simplistic, and plain wrong, hubris! A classic example of small minded religious bigotry., '...if saving our souls from hell is being oppressed then I guess we are being oppressed.'

Is this typical of US talk shows where the presenter talks down the guest in such an overbearing way? The few I have watched lately suggest it is. This needs to change before any sensible dialogue can go mainstream. But then of course those who pull the media strings don't want sensible, considered dialogue, preferring intended to be entertaining pap like this.

Went to seminary (whatever that is) and an altar boy for twelve years. Has he read his bible,? 'God wants you to be rich sir', he clearly remembered little of it, to intent on making his facile quips.

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9. Comment #22362 by john_eg on February 15, 2007 at 4:55 am

R.E: Lionel A

I am still surprised by the people whom don't know Steven is satire, it's no different than Ali G or Borat.

It's satire and I think its good satire, just watch his speech at the white house press association dinner! (I haven't got the link, help anybody?)

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10. Comment #22372 by plastictowel on February 15, 2007 at 12:59 pm

Has anyone read this book....I'm interested.

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11. Comment #22373 by thompjs on February 15, 2007 at 2:53 pm

Lionel A:

Dr. Dawkins has been on Colbert and I think he
quite enjoyed it.

Colbert reportedly spoke with Dr Dawkins before show
and said: "Remember, I play a complete idiot"

His character is Protestant, in real life
he is Catholic (I believe, I don't remember
him specifically giving a denomination, but
he makes a lot of fundie type remarks not
normally heard from Catholics in US)

If you are from outside US, it is pretty subtle
satire sometimes. There are guys on Fox News
that say almost the same things he does.

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12. Comment #22374 by Riley on February 15, 2007 at 3:04 pm

Anyone interested in seeing the infamous clip of Stephen Colbert roasting George W. Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner, here it is:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

For some context on Colbert and the speech, here's another clip:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/05/ballsalicious.html


--

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13. Comment #22398 by Lionel A on February 16, 2007 at 9:29 am

OK folks, thanks for putting me straight.

I guess that I have not watched enough of US satire to judge this excerpt as such (although the thought of Jesuses fighting it out should have given me the idea ;-) ). I guess it is a bit like the often subtle British sense of humour doesn't always work in the US.

This is probably a culture thing similar to the service (navy, arm, air-force etc) black humour going down like a lead balloon outside of that culture.

But there again, all that razzamataz at the start gave me the idea that here was another 'happy clappy' type and set the scene for my thinking.

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