{"id":187,"date":"2006-05-02T11:28:59","date_gmt":"2006-05-02T16:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/05\/02\/rapport-report\/"},"modified":"2006-05-09T15:10:34","modified_gmt":"2006-05-09T20:10:34","slug":"rapport-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/rapport-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapport Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Falling into the bloggers’ venue of commenting on every darn thing is not the plan of Brick,<\/strong> but when everyone’s doing it? Topic: The 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner’s keynote address by satirist Stephen Colbert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had not been a major fan of the new series The Colbert Report<\/em> (pronounced unctuously Colbere Rapport), much preferring its older brother The Daily Show with Jon Stewart<\/em>. I get news parodies; I remember Laugh-In’s<\/em>. But to parody shows I avoid?<\/p>\n

The closest I’ve come to those — Bill O’Reilly, Chris Matthews and Rush Limbaugh — are on Saturday Night Live<\/em>. But I hit mute on them — because the jokes are as annoying as the originals must be. I have avoided the shouting TV gasbags from the beginning of the founding one, The McLaughlin Group<\/a><\/em>, much preferring Washington Week<\/em><\/a>, where its guests to this day not only speak quietly but report instead of opine. In the months Colbert’s own show has been on, my viewing has expanded from just the first 5 minutes (until Leno-Letterman come on), until this week when I’ve watched the entire half-hour and move to Charlie Rose’s guest hosts. What makes Colbert and his team fine is knowing how to do satire in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The hard thing about satire and humor in general is difficult about lots of writing these days, the perspective of background. You have to first explain what you’re talking about, because the audience is not as well-informed as it used to be (the audience is not stupid; the audience is distracted or the audience has many, many other sources of information. And schools haven’t force-fed mythology or history in ages — what is<\/em> Achilles’ heel?). Explaining a joke, we humorists insist, risks killing it. Unless you’re very good. Then that’s called “the set-up.” Colbert’s writing team is good, and they were in good but not great form for that dinner. Not all jokes worked. Maybe the whole bit ran too long (20 minutes, sheesh). Colbert tripped over his lines a couple of times, but recovered well enough.<\/p>\n

Not all jokes can be set up, or understood by everyone. When you see the transcript<\/a> you realize how many words fill 20 minutes. It’s like a good madcap movie: You’re not expected to “get” everything, but when so many fly past, just getting some is good enough, and if different folks get different jokes, why that only points to the qualities of the writing. Colbert for example snuck a global warming quip into a jab at Jesse Jackson (why are the conservatives mad when Colbert like all excellent humorists hits everyone<\/em>?). I caught that one, but the many remarks about the press corps being insular confused my life companion. When I explained the issue, she didn’t care. So it goes.<\/p>\n

Clinton laughed even when he was being speared. George I laughed, too, at comparable times. I remember. It’s called “part of the job of being president.” Surely, the laughter was their performance.<\/p>\n

My point: Do you really care if D.C. reporters thought Colbert was funny or if George II felt insulted? What matters is that Colbert delivered. If his character portrays a conservative who doesn’t realize he’s contradicting himself or his base — you understood the act (Justice Scalia and some general laughed), then Colbert delivered. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Falling into the bloggers’ venue of commenting on every darn thing is not the plan of Brick, but when everyone’s doing it? Topic: The 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner’s keynote address by satirist Stephen Colbert. I had not been a major fan of the new series The Colbert Report (pronounced unctuously Colbere Rapport), much preferring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2289,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/10\/its-just-a-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":0},"title":"It’s Just a Show","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here we are, 2010, a week before the national midterm elections. Where does the president appear to support his party and his policies and other endeavors. Not an interview with Katie, Brian or Diane -- or their seconds, even though they're all trained journalists. He didn't drop in on Dave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/fake-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":1},"title":"Fake Off","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When one goes for a hit of news, it's amazing how often it's been cut with spin. Not bias, not commentary, but flapdoodle. It's right after shipment where the purveyors can't help but allude to it so it stays. Example 1. Former President Clinton's tactics a few weeks ago while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2428,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/third-quarter-ii-into-the-fourth\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":2},"title":"Third Quarter II, Into the Fourth","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Brick book list with sketchy reviews, continued. Book List through October 2010 September 2010 Solar by Ian McEwan. Book on CD. The novel by the polished McEwan got mixed reviews but I liked it. It's a successful comic novel whose hero is brilliant but a buffoon, who wages a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5224,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/09\/biden-fox-geo-adjunct\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":3},"title":"Biden Exeunts, Fox Guards the Geo House","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load Joe Biden appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, in the show's debut week. Most\u00a0main media reports and commentaries seemed to agree this morning that the vice president\u00a0was favoring not running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, but that his decision was not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Seal of the Vice President of the United States","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vice-President-Seal-800x800-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3562,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/03\/ocd-tt\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":4},"title":"OCD TT","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not making this up. Nor did I touch the dog or his possessions. He did this. Our 4-year Tibetan terrier Mani, whom we've had three years, loves Hopper, the stray young adult TT we adopted last Thanksgiving week. Inseparable. They can quarrel over toys, though. Mani is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mani languidly protecting 5 toys. The symmetric configuration is entirely his.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/OCD-TT.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/OCD-TT.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/OCD-TT.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/a-little-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":5},"title":"A Little Magazine","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For decades, The New Yorker arrived 52 weeks a year, on the same day, must've been Tuesday, in Mom and Dad's mailbox in Fort Smith. Rarely, it came on Wednesday. A little while before it dropped to 47 issues annually, the regular day ended, annoying Mom to no end. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}