The Colbert Report: Premiere Week
By: Mark Runyon | Category: Show Review | 10/23/05 | 01:45 PM
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Grade: D+ | Genre: Comedy
Summary: Colbert is still funny and has his moments, but he just doesn't have what it takes to be the leading man.
It's a good time to be a correspondent on the Daily Show. Lewis Black is burning up the stand-up circuit with a new book and CD, thanks to his weekly ranting on the "Back in Black" segment. Steve Carell, not only has the starring role in the British-import comedy The Office, but he's also been propelled to 'A'-list comedian after spearheading the summer box office hit The 40-Year Old Virgin. Now we have Stephen Colbert, or the Frenchman as Bill O'Reilly is kindly referring to him, being pushed out of the nest to take on his own nightly Comedy Central show, following his old pals at the Daily Show. You'd think Jon would be a little "hey, that's my success; that should be my name flashing on the box office marquee." No way. On the lead-ins for the Colbert Report, Jon looks like a proud new poppa, bursting at the seams with pride at the success of his protege. I still think he should be collecting a fat royalty check from all these careers that he's helped launch off his show. |
Colbert has always been one of the funniest commentators on the Daily Show. His deadpan delivery is always exacting, and he isn't afraid of looking like an absolute ass to nail the funniest angle on a report. So since we've already got the Daily Show filling the "fake news" niche, what will Colbert's angle be? Lampooning the talk show boobs that pervade the so-called news networks like Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. They are so over-the-top ridiculous that Colbert's ridicule has to be as complex as shooting fish in a barrel. He's got the studio with his name and picture of his mug plastered everywhere. The damn desk is made out of a giant 'C' for goodness sakes. When he announces a guest, they are already seated on another section of the stage so he can run over and soak up the intro applause. I kid you not. I know he's meaning to deflate the enormous heads of the Hannity & Colmes and O'Reilly's of this world, but he's a little too good at playing pompous. It doesn't come off as fake. He's stroking his vanity like a teenage boy who has just discovered his dad's Playboy collection.
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| The Colbert Report |
| Starring: Stephen Colbert, Stephen Colbert and...Stephen Colbert |
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His most glaring problem is with his guests. When he's sitting in front of the teleprompter, he's at least got a fighting chance to sling some preprogrammed zingers. His impromptu skills are downright scary. Like his first segment with Stone Phillips, I don't think one actual question or relevant piece of information changed hands during the entire dialog. Granted, Stewart has this problem as well, but it's just with the celebrities touting their films on his show. When it's the politicos, he just comes alive with fire in his eyes. I haven't seen any fire from Colbert yet. You've got to hand it to Newsweek correspondent Fareed Zakaria. At least he took Colbert's irrelevant gibberish and quickly flushed it down with his interesting array of facts on what's going on in the world. He was impervious to the spin. Maybe it's not too late to get Zakaria to host this show. I'd certainly watch that.
Though the bad certainly overpowers the good, the highlights are in what Colbert did really well on the Daily Show -- the short segments. One of the opening cuts is called "the Word." In this he takes a word and expounds on all sorts of modern ills and drama that relate to it. While he is talking, in the sidebar runs commentary about his commentary which is pretty darn funny. He seems to have picked up that some of the funniest parts of Jon's reports are the captions they glue onto the pictures he's busy expounding on.
At one point, Colbert makes the jest "I'm finding out how hard it is to fill 22 minutes." Yeah, we can tell. This can be painful to watch at times. Colbert is still funny and has his moments, but he just doesn't have what it takes to be the leading man. I mean take something as simple as being able to read a sketch without getting tangled up in his words -- several times over. That should be second nature at this point. What this really shows is how good Jon Stewart is. He saddles up in the chair everyday and makes this whole process look effortless. After watching the Colbert Report, you discover that Jon's fluid style and effortless humor are a damn tough act to pull off. Stewart has had much longer manning the desk at the Daily Show to really hone his craft so maybe this is simply Colbert's trying to feel out his groove. Unfortunately, I don't know that his audience will stick around long enough to allow him to find his way. So Stephen, you did leave the possibility of coming back to the Daily Show on the table with Jon, right?
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