When I initially heard that Colbert was running for president, I realized that he's more famous now than John Stewart. I also thought it would work. I figured he would run, and it would be funny and he'd continue to rustle his bag of Doritos, and belittle other candidates. This was not the case.
Halfway into the episode Stephen received an on air phone call from Carol Fowler, Chair of South Carolina's Executive Democratic Committee. Colbert had been building up to this moment, showing clips of his time among the SC people and members of the committee. In one of these clips he's even given SC's favorite son award, surrounded by a crowd of southerners holding "Colbert 08" signs. The episode is loaded with satire, especially when Colbert wines and dines the committee, "sucking up" as he puts it, like a good politician. When Fowler finally calls to give Stephen the verdict, she says that the committee is still drunk. Sadly, Stephen, as Fowler gently puts it, "didn't make the cut." She tells him to run for the next election, and to make sure to come back and "win the hearts and minds of SC." (with more sucking up)
Stephen soldiers on, a mournful site as he frowns behind his falling victory balloons, and brings on his guest, Walter Kern, who tells Stephen the only way he could have won was if he'd done what Fowler said, spending time in SC for the next four years "doing nothing but kissing butt there." Stephen quickly responds to this, with a trace of genuine ridicule of the election process, and says, "this is how we choose our presidential candidates."
The truthiness here is that our elections seem fake. Colbert is showing just how ridiculous they are, from the amount of cozying a candidate has to do, to how theatrical they've become. My first impression of Colbert running for president was that it could work. I thought he could get his name on the ballot, and of course not win, but be an option. This shows just how much our culture has assimilated to theatre in the government, in places where it's not supposed to be. How can you take a presidential election seriously when a comedian is running in it? You can't. How can you take a presidential election seriously when the candidates are suck-ups? You still can't.
When I saw that Colbert would not be in the election, I was disappointed. I wanted to see how it would play out, how many laughs I could get out of watching Colbert parody presidential candidates. The government is fighting funny here in order to gain back some dignity and I guess that's fair. It could use some.
Halfway into the episode Stephen received an on air phone call from Carol Fowler, Chair of South Carolina's Executive Democratic Committee. Colbert had been building up to this moment, showing clips of his time among the SC people and members of the committee. In one of these clips he's even given SC's favorite son award, surrounded by a crowd of southerners holding "Colbert 08" signs. The episode is loaded with satire, especially when Colbert wines and dines the committee, "sucking up" as he puts it, like a good politician. When Fowler finally calls to give Stephen the verdict, she says that the committee is still drunk. Sadly, Stephen, as Fowler gently puts it, "didn't make the cut." She tells him to run for the next election, and to make sure to come back and "win the hearts and minds of SC." (with more sucking up)
Stephen soldiers on, a mournful site as he frowns behind his falling victory balloons, and brings on his guest, Walter Kern, who tells Stephen the only way he could have won was if he'd done what Fowler said, spending time in SC for the next four years "doing nothing but kissing butt there." Stephen quickly responds to this, with a trace of genuine ridicule of the election process, and says, "this is how we choose our presidential candidates."
The truthiness here is that our elections seem fake. Colbert is showing just how ridiculous they are, from the amount of cozying a candidate has to do, to how theatrical they've become. My first impression of Colbert running for president was that it could work. I thought he could get his name on the ballot, and of course not win, but be an option. This shows just how much our culture has assimilated to theatre in the government, in places where it's not supposed to be. How can you take a presidential election seriously when a comedian is running in it? You can't. How can you take a presidential election seriously when the candidates are suck-ups? You still can't.
When I saw that Colbert would not be in the election, I was disappointed. I wanted to see how it would play out, how many laughs I could get out of watching Colbert parody presidential candidates. The government is fighting funny here in order to gain back some dignity and I guess that's fair. It could use some.
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