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New York City Travel - Television - The Colbert Report
The Colbert Report
Production
Colbert on "The Colbert Gang"
Following the success of The Daily Show at the 2004 Emmy Awards, Comedy Central wanted to extend the franchise. Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Ben Karlin (The Daily Show's executive producer) supposedly came up with the idea for The Colbert Report after watching coverage of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Bill O'Reilly. Jon Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions, developed the Report. Colbert, Stewart, and Karlin pitched the idea of the show (reportedly with one phrase: "our version of The O'Reilly Factor with Stephen Colbert") to Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, who agreed to run the show for eight weeks without first creating a pilot.
The Colbert Report first appeared in the form of three fake commercials for itself that aired several times on The Daily Show, although the themes that would form the basis for the Report can be seen in some of the earlier bits performed by Colbert. The show debuted October 17, 2005, for an eight-week run under its initial contract. On November 2, 2005 based on the strong ratings for the show's first two weeks, Comedy Central and Colbert announced they had signed for an additional year, through the end of 2006.
Before hosting The Colbert Report, Colbert was the host of a fictional "Sunday morning chat show," The Colbert Gang, a parody of the CNN program The Capital Gang, which appeared in a segment called "Corporate Slogans" on the Daily Show. The sketch featured bluescreen subliminal messages similar to the style of "The Wørd".
Program format
Typically, Colbert starts each episode with teasers for the show's topics and guest, followed by a verbal metaphor that promotes the show—for example, using a football metaphor, "Go out ten yards and button-hook to the left. I'm going to hit you with a perfect spiral of the truth. This is The Colbert Report." The show's opening titles sequence begins, with images of flag waving, Colbert striking poses and words describing Colbert flying by. Originally, the last word to fly past Colbert was grippy, but it has changed to megamerican, Lincolnish, superstantial, freem, eneagled, flagaphile, and as of July 16, 2007, good. The sequence ends with a computer-generated eagle swooping toward the foreground.
Following the opening sequence, Colbert proceeds with the initial run-through of the day's headlines, similar to The Daily Show but with a pseudo-right-wing spin. After this, he presents "The Wørd", which juxtaposes Colbert's commentary with ironic bullet points on-screen. It is a satirical take on The O'Reilly Factor "Talking Points Memo;" A middle segment follows that varies, normally a visual presentation or skit. Often, these skits are parts of recurring segments, like "Better Know a District", "Tip of the Hat / Wag of the Finger," "Stephen Colbert's Formidable Opponent," "Movies that are destroying America" and "The Threatdown". The third and final segment is always an interview with a celebrity guest, often an author or government official.
Set
The studio in which The Colbert Report is taped was used for The Daily Show before that show was moved in July 2005 to a new location. The set for The Colbert Report is called "The Eagle's Nest" and reflects and facilitates Colbert's self-aggrandizing style.
The set has two main areas: the desk from which Colbert hosts most of the show, and the guest interview area to the right, where his guest for the evening sits to be interviewed. On one wall, above an artificial fireplace, is a portrait of Colbert; it originally showed Colbert standing in front of the same mantel another portrait of himself. On the show's first anniversary, the portrait was replaced by one of Colbert standing in front of the mantel with the first portrait above it; the original was auctioned off at a charity event. Colbert
claimed that the portrait will be changed every year to add another level of depth. The graphics used throughout the show and the studio itself are saturated with American flags, Bald Eagles, and other patriotic imagery.
On the show's first episode, Colbert pointed out several of the references to himself in the set. Among other examples, Colbert's name and initials appear on the desk's plasma screen, on the rafters above the desk, and the desk itself is shaped like a giant "C". In an interview with The A.V. Club, Colbert explained that much of the design for the set was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. "All the architecture of that room points at Jesus' head, the entire room is a halo," Colbert said. "On the set, I'd like the lines of the set to converge on my head. And so if you look at the design, it all does, it all points at my head...there's a sort of sun-god burst quality about the set around me."
Stephen Colbert character
The fictional Stephen Colbert character drives the show's focus on "bluster and personality". The character is a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot" inspired by such TV personalities as Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough, and Geraldo Rivera. Colbert's character is right-wing, egomaniacal, fact-averse, God-fearing, and super-patriotic. He claims to be an independent who is often mistaken for a Republican, but uniformly despises liberals and almost always agrees with the actions and decisions of George W. Bush and the Republican Party. This is evidenced in one of the recurring questions that he asks to many of his guests - "George W. Bush: great President, or the greatest President?"
The character's self-aggrandizing style includes frequent promotion of an extensive range of fictional merchandising and products, including perfumes, sci-fi novels, medications and other products, all of which are either produced or endorsed by Colbert. Colbert has also successfully incited his viewers, the "Colbert Nation", to vote for him in various public naming polls: Colbert has won contests for naming a bridge in Hungary and the mascot of the Saginaw Spirit, an Ontario Hockey League team.
Colbert's character has been described as a "caustic right-wing bully". On the interview segment of the show, Colbert frequently attempts to "nail" his guest by using various rhetorical devices to prove them wrong. However, when interviewing guests with whom he agrees, Colbert may be gregarious and ingratiating. Despite his bluster, Colbert's character also suffers from arctophobia, the fear of bears. He refers to them as "godless killing machines without a soul." This bear phobia was inspired by Colbert's real-life fear of bears as a child.Colbert refers to Bill O'Reilly as "Papa Bear," a title with a double meaning, considering Colbert's hatred of bears. Colbert also demonstrates fear and suspicion of nearly any animal and is quick to declare they are "training" to attack humanity. He is also highly adverse to technology, and robots in particular. Over the months of May-July in 2007, Colbert begged Apple to give him a free iPhone; upon finally getting one in July, however, he claimed it knew so much about him and he had become so dependent on it, that the iPhone itself was also a threat. Colbert also despises the liberal media, the New York Times and CNN in particular, although he does applaud Fox News on a regular basis.
Recurring themes
The Colbert Report presents various recurring themes that help define the show.
Truthiness
In "The Wørd" on the first episode of the Report, Colbert featured the term truthiness, which he defined as "the quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination." In December 2005, the New York Times selected truthiness as one of nine words that captured the zeitgeist of the year, and in January 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that truthiness was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year. Truthiness is often used by lawyers to refer to statements that might otherwise be hearsay that are offered into evidence, not for evidence of their “truth” but rather to show the mindset or beliefs of the declarant. Colbert has since made frequent reference to the widespread influence of truthiness since he introduced it, while carping on media accounts of truthiness that neglect to identify him as its source. Truthiness has since been discussed, several times in many cases, in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, MSNBC, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, Editor & Publisher, Salon, The Huffington Post, ABC NewsRadio's Word Watch with Kel Richards and Chicago Reader, and on ABC's Nightline, CBS' 60 Minutes, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In January 2006, truthiness was featured as a Word of the Week by the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary. In December of the same year, Merriam-Webster announced that "truthiness" had been voted by visitors to its website to be the #1 Word of the Year for 2006. On August 27, 2006, the Global Language Monitor in an unprecedented move named two words from the same show—truthiness and wikiality—both coined by Colbert, as the top television buzzwords of 20
06.
Relation to The O'Reilly Factor
Generally, the Stephen Colbert character and The Colbert Report are parodies of Bill O'Reilly and The O'Reilly Factor, respectively. New episodes of The Colbert Report are scheduled in the same time slot as rebroadcasts of The O'Reilly Factor while Colbert rebroadcasts are scheduled during new O'Reilly shows.
When O'Reilly appeared on The Daily Show before the second episode of The Colbert Report aired, he began by commenting on how he was glad to finally be out of "that hell hole of a show" and he also commented on the report: "Before we get started, somebody told me walking in here, you got some French guy on after you making fun of me?" O'Reilly made several references in the following interview about 'the French Guy.' Colbert is not French, nor is the original pronunciation of his name.
In a subsequent Newsweek interview, O'Reilly said that he "feels it's a compliment" to have Colbert parody him because Colbert "isn't mean-spirited" and does not "use [his] platform to injure people." In an open reply on-air, Colbert later said: "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist."
The Colbert Report features a commentary segment called "The Wørd" similar to O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo." Like the "Memo," "The Wørd" features the commentator asserting a political point of view with a text screen graphic next to him. However, while O'Reilly's text serves to emphasize his points (often being a word-for-word copy of what O'Reilly is saying), Colbert's generally serve to provide an ironic counterpoint to his character's position. Other segments that can be juxtaposed with The O'Reilly Factor are The Colbert Report's Inbox (compared to O'Reilly's "Factor Mail"); Stephen Colbert's Balls for Kidz which, unlike The Factor's "Children at Risk", tends to portray messages and lessons typically considered unsuitable for children; and That's The Craziest F#?king Thing I've Ever Heard, which likens to O'Reilly's "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day".
Additionally, Colbert parodies O'Reilly's references to his program as the "no spin zone" by inviting viewers of his show to "take a spin in the no fact zone." O'Reilly and Colbert each appeared as guests on the other's show on January 18, 2007.
Greenscreen challenges
On the August 10, 2006 episode, Stephen Colbert was shown jumping around in front of a greenscreen wielding a lightsaber, a parody of the Star Wars Kid internet phenomenon. This was done as part of the Better Know A District segment when he visited California's 6th congressional district where Star Wars creator George Lucas lives. This footage was subsequently edited by fans and their results were posted on the Internet, primarily YouTube. Colbert featured some of these clips on the August 21 episode and issued the "Greenscreen Challenge" to the public — a contest for who can make the best video from footage originally filmed in the August 10 episode. Lucas himself made an appearance on the October 11 episode to showcase his entry.
When indie rock band The Decemberists shot a music video for their single "O Valencia!" in front of a green screen and asked people to finish the video, Colbert took them to task for copying his idea and started his second green screen challenge. It called on the fans to edit Stephen Colbert into The Decemberists unfinished music video. The Decemberists then challenged Colbert to a guitar solo challenge. For a few weeks this became a focus of the show. On December 20, 2006, Chris Funk, lead guitarist for The Decemberists, came to the show for the guitar solo challenge. The contest was called "Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon" (Colbert announced "The I-Rock War: Cut and Strum" and "The Axeman Cometh: Mourning Becomes Electric" as alternate titles, adding of the latter that he would find and fire the English major on his staff). After Funk had finished playing, Colbert came on stage with a five-necked guitar, belonging to Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick.
Colbert played two notes, pretended to cut his hand, and insisted that he could no longer play. Peter Frampton then came on and played a solo for Colbert. A panel of three judges, New York governor Eliot Spitzer, Rock critic Anthony DeCurtis, and chairman of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University, Jim Anderson, voted on whose solo they thought was the best. DeCurtis voted for the Colbert/Frampton team, Anderson voted for Funk, and after Spitzer revealed that Colbert had tried to bribe him during the commercial break he withdrew himself from judging. The deciding vote was given to Henry Kissinger, who made a few short appearances earlier in the show starting the contest. Kissinger said that the American people had won and Colbert deemed himself the winner. As a prize he got The Crane Wife, The Decemberists' new album, saying "The Crane Wife by the Decemberists? I love the Decemberists, they rock. In your face, Funk!
