When I first posted on Stephen Colbert's performance at the WHCD I said it was a classic and it would be remembered for a very long time. But I never thought that almost two weeks later it would still be as hot a topic as it is. To be honest when I saw it was the topic of Arianna Huffington's post yesterday I wasn't anxious to get to it right away because I didn't think there was much more anyone could say. And I seriously doubted the title of her post, which was, Is Stephen Colbert the Last One to Know How Amazing He Was? But I was wrong and I should have read it immediately. Arianna was at Time's 100 Most Influential People Awards where Colbert was honored along with her. I believe he was the keynote speaker at that event as well. Arianna spoke with him and this is what she had to say:...shockingly, one of the few people still unaware of just how big an impact the twin evisceration of the president and the puppy dog press has had is Stephen Colbert himself.It surprises me, but it shouldn't. It's the same thing you hear star athletes and other performers say about their performances. It's almost a cliche, but it is so true, that you can't focus on the hype around it. You have to focus on the thing itself, whatever it is that you do. At first I was amazed that he would be the last to know his impact. But when you think about it, performing at his level, it makes sense.
When I ran into him the other night at the Time 100 celebration, he told me that he had strenuously avoided reading anything about his appearance -- the good, the bad, or the ugly -- preferring to focus on the present and putting together his nightly TV show.
When you look at the comments at this post and elsewhere around the blogs, it's a shame he doesn't know yet. It is touching what people have to say about him. He was truly courageous and it touched his audience. Arianna compares him to Swift, Twain and Bruce. It is an apt comparison. Finally she puts together some quotes from around the blogosphere that he should see when he's ready. Oddly, I didn't find mine among them. And this. She must have missed them. I understand. She's human. She can't catch everything.
In case you missed Colbert's performance, or in case you want to see it again, I have watched it several times, it's here and the whole WHCD including the performance is here. Enjoy.
-Stand up and fight the powers.
1 comment:
Quick, don't you listen to your oil baron president? He doesn't pay attention to the polls. But I'm sure he means that in the kind of newspeak hypocritical way he sees everything. He doesn't pay attention to anything that doesn't view the world as he does. It's the same reason he, and people like you didn't find Stephen Colbert funny.
As a revolutionary, one of the few forms of life I hold in lower esteem than a billionaire is a pollster. Whereas billionaires suck the lifeblood or our economy through faceless, corporations which poison our food, air, water, and souls with their materialistic and empty consumerism, pollsters aren't even that honorable. They propose to influence what we think by telling us that they are revealing our own opinions to us. Their true goal is to get us to think what they want us to think. They poison our very mindscape and the democracy of ideas they purport to inform us about. When the revolutions comes, it will be the pollsters that will be taken down even before the billionaires. So you, Mr. Quick, being both, will be first on the list.
-See you on the veranda....
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