| THE BEST OF THE COLBERT REPORT |
 2005-2007 - USADirector: Jim Hoskinson
- Reviewed by Linda
The Best of the Colbert Report is a simple "greatest hits"-type compilation of The Colbert Report's first couple of years (2005-2007), starting out with the introduction of the word "truthiness" (later voted Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year) all the way to the Spring of 2007, with Sean Penn as a guest in a mock game show called Meta-Free-Phor-All (hosted by Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky). Guests range from FOX News' hyper-conservative Bill O'Reilly (in a very testy but amiable showdown) to Willie Nelson to the guitarist for the indie-pop band The Decemberists. Best (and strangest bits) include two appearances by Jane Fonda, the first where she and Gloria Steinem get to talk about their new feminists radio network... while donning aprons for a cooking demonstration. Jane's smooch on Colbert's lips gets her back for another show where, apparently impromptu, she sits on flustered Colbert's lap for the entire interview, whispering in his ear, kissing him, and causing him to blush and stammer. Also good fun are his political interviews, as well as his simple man-at-a-desk commentary. He is the master of deadpan, and sometimes I wonder if conservatives take him seriously while liberal hipsters embrace him as parody. The DVD is pretty much no frills, no extras. Just clip after clip after clip of bits, running over 3 hours total. I have to admit that I felt like I was watching YouTube for hours on end, with the same sort of short-attention-span requirement. There are no full episodes here, and though there is much good stuff on hand (especially as an introduction to the show, for those of us who haven't seen it), I can only wonder what sort of stuff has been left out. Too bad Colbert was recently bumped off the Democratic presidential primary ballot in his home state of South Carolina (he says he ran as Democrat because it was too expensive to register as a Republican candidate). As deadpan-ridiculous as Colbert may be, you have to admit he probably knows more about the political system that a certain president who couldn't name most of the world leaders when he was elected (guess who?). Stephen Colbert's fans refer to themselves as the Colbert Nation. Wouldn't it have been an interesting experiment to see how far the Cobert Nation could get actually turning this country into a Colbert Nation? |
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In the words of District of Columbia U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Stephen Colbert is a "plain vanilla man" (or maybe "French Vanilla", as Colbert counters). And she's right. But there is something so wonderfully subversive about a self-proclaimed conservative patriot being one of the pointiest political satirists around. Does it matter that The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert's half-hour political show is on Comedy Central? Don't you sometimes wonder why it is that Colbert and his pal John Stewart get the best political interviews, but they are technically comedians? Who else would bother with a 434-part series on U.S. congressional districts called "Better Know a District"? Says a lot about our country, doesn't it?
