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Stephen Colbert To Be Letterman's Successor
ralphart (70342) writes "CBS has announced Stephen Colbert will replace David Letterman on The Late Show, after Letterman retires in 2015. 'Simply being a guest on David Letterman’s show has been a highlight of my career,' Colbert said in a press release from CBS. 'I never dreamed that I would follow in his footsteps, though everyone in late night follows Dave’s lead.'"
This is good to know about and all, but...
WHY IS THIS ON SLASHDOT!?
Because it's Truthy.
And because most of us like Stephen Colbert. It fits under the "news for nerds" criteria.
"Simply being a guest on David Letterman’s show has been a highlight of my career"
Wait...he really meant that. It's kinda creepy when Colbert makes out-of-character statements. And now there's gonna be a whole show full of those? Ugh...
And if that isn't nerd news enough for you, you might prefer his RSA keynote instead.
They said he is dropping the conservative character he portrays on The Colbert Report, but they didn't say if he will stop being the egomaniac part. That could make for good television. He could, after all, still be a liberal egomaniac...
(and I know, the slashdot chorus will chime in and declare that to be redundant)
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Colbert is funny, so that makes him a comedian.
But is letterman funny or a comedian? Not at all.
Letterman is pants.
Letterman is WORLDWIDE PANTS
If you like Stephen Colbert, go watch Strangers With Candy. It was one of the first Comedy Central shows and it's just amazing.
Also, he's the only guy that: /.... but Need I say more?
a. does the liberal/liberation spin that IS silicon valley
b. actually talks about tech like DRONES, along with BEARS.
c. has writers that are very, very tech savvy, much like the Simpsons and Futurama
d. Michael Stipe and Patrick Steward as continuing guests. That is
Patrick STEWARD????? What? Is he the caretaker of the Enterprise until the day comes that the one true Captain returns to claim his rightful chair?
That whooshing sound you hear? That's Colbert's satire going right over your head. If the Kissinger/peace prize reference didn't tip you off, consider that he said it at the same event that he said "I'm sure that under enhanced liberty you can have all the privacy that you want, just like under enhanced interrogation you can breathe all the water you want."
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Nah, Dennis miller is a conservative former comedian. Back when he was still doing comedy, it was pretty centrist, with the social aspect leaning a bit to the left.
After 9/11 made him shit his pants, he started being conservative, and stopped being a comedian, opting to move his "big words and obscure references" style into punditry, where it works about as well as you might expect.
Steven Colbert's entire schtick is about double standards and how absurd some people can get. I seriously doubt you are getting the humor of his persona (and that is all that it is) of his Colbert Report.
The interesting thing is to see how much of that persona is going to carry on with the Late Show or if he will be more himself.
You believe one ambiguous clause about Kissinger is the hint that clarifies that Colbert's position on Snowden is sarcastic, that is, the opposite of what Colbert actually is saying.
Well, that, and having an even passing familiarity with his work for the past 8 years...
> His bank account will see a significant step up
Not as much as you might think. He makes more than half what Letterman does now ($8 mil/yr vs Dave's ~$15mil) and it's unlikely CBS will pay him as much as they paid Dave, at least not to begin with.
Since Dave (and Leno for that matter) took pay cuts a few years back due to declining audiences across the board, Jon Stewart has been the highest-paid talk show host on the air.
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Unbelievable. I have to wonder if you're deliberately trolling.
That whole speech is a critique of the NSA and invasions of privacy. It also includes a defence of Snowdon. You really need to take a moment to think about the role of satire.
He mocked the FBI Director for saying invasions of privacy were an attempt to "enhance liberty" by equating "enhanced liberty" to "enhanced interrogation".
He pointed out the role of elections and the ability of the public to demand their representatives ensure their privacy.
He went to the conference of cryptographers and told them it's their responsibility to think about how their industry impacts critical social values.
He talked about the importance of oversight of the NSA "All these revelations... of NSA survaliance just prove that when you give someone unlimited power and no supervision the results are always fantastic. You know the saying, 'absolute power succeeds absolutely'".
He pointed out the total lack of value the NSA snooping has "We have absolute proof this program has saved... zero lives."
He constantly reminded everyone the NSA is invading your privacy "it shouldn't bother you if you're not hiding anything, and since nothing can be hidden from the NSA nothing is bothering you."
He also mocked the marketing spin of the security industry.
I read your comment a few posts down saying "I previsously was a Colbert fan, and I fully understand his style of humor and method of message. In this case, I tried hard to find a way to extortionate Colbert, but he provides nothing. It is possible to distill the seriousness from the fake-seriousness in what Colbert says, and Colbert is seriously taking an anti-Snowden position.
Colbert also states [slate.com] (by joking on the square) that his opinion is for sale. "...my conscience is clear, as long as the check clears."
I can say with 100% certainty that you do not understand his style of humour at all, nor his method of message. Your entire interpretation is 100% backwards. Maybe when you used to be a fan you still had a sense of humour and have subsequently lost it? I don't know. But your criticism is so incredibly moronic that I'm beginning to wonder if you're actually trying to engage in satire yourself.
Stephen Colbert has been called "The biggest Tolkien geek I've ever met". Coming from Peter Jackson, that's quite an honor. The guy's a nerd, so it's something remarkable that he's become as much of a cultural phenomenon as he is, and now he's set to take on one of the big late night shows. It'll be interesting to see what happens- weird to see him out of character, but he's phenomenally talented and versatile, if anyone can pull it off he can. The thing I like about Colbert is that it's clear he really enjoys doing what he's doing, there's just something about watching someone at work who's having the time of their life.
It's also going to be interesting to see what Comedy Central does now. John Oliver and now Stephen Colbert have left, so they've lost two of their top three comics, and I'd argue that they've lost the best two. I know a number of people who are still John Stewart fans but personally I think Stewart has lost his mojo. He's not passionate, he seems tired and burned out, his humor has an edge that's not just self-deprecating, it's self-pitying, an endless series of sad jokes about how old he is and how short he is. The humor is also increasingly juvenile, but not in a good way. It's all dick jokes, which would be great if Stewart and the writers could make funny dick jokes like Parker and Stone, but they can't. The supporting cast has issues as well. In particular Jason Jones is supposed to be playing a character who's a dick, but he just comes across as actually being dick, and the show has taken on a mean-spirited tone that it didn't used to have.
Personally, I think Comedy Central is in trouble. The Daily Show has some serious issues and Stewart's directorial gig and Oliver's stint as guest host makes it clear he's thinking about moving on. Colbert has now left. John Oliver demonstrated last summer that he's talented and charming enough to host a half-hour show, but now he's on HBO. This move probably doesn't come as a complete shock, so if Comedy Central was clever, they would have encouraged John Oliver to sign a contract that would leave him free to come back to Comedy Central. But the other issue is that Oliver seems like a perfect replacement for Stewart. It's unclear who would- or could- fill in for someone as unique as Colbert.
Jon Stewart always impressed me for being a lefty that didn't seem to have a problem pointing out stupid lefty shit just like he did stupid right stuff.
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Double down: Stewart seems *more* irritated by stupid lefty shit, in the tone of "Hey, why are you being as stupid as the other side, you're supposed to be the smart ones!!!"
I don't know when it airs where you are, but here, The Colbert Report airs at 11:30 pm, and Late Night with David Letterman normally starts at 11:35 pm.
I suspect there's going to be some changes in viewership numbers and demographics when Colbert takes over the show, but it's not going to be from going on the air a whole five minutes later.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.