Stephen Colbert To Be Letterman's Successor 193
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.'"
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
And because most of us like Stephen Colbert. It fits under the "news for nerds" criteria.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Snowden, that's why it's relevant to /.ers. (Score:5, Insightful)
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."
Re:Kissinger as "War Criminal" (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh give it up. There's this thing called context. It's a topic being discussed by Americans about an American involving American politics. It doesn't fucking matter if it offends your personal European opinion on what constitutes the Left because the Left in Europe doesn't fucking matter in this topic.
I'd call you a damn turian, but at least then you would pull the stick out of your ass and use it to beat people up.
Re:Will he still be an egomaniac? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, Colbert is much, much more than the faux-O'Reilly persona he's affected in recent years. All the work he did on the Daily Show...I recall the "Even Steven" segment he did with Steve Carell was rather brilliant.
I feel a bit bad for Craig Ferguson. He's a great comic but his shtick is a bit out there at times, and much less scripted and structured than I think CBS wanted for the prime night-time slot