I’m afraid a lot of folks are missing the big story on the White House Stenographer’s Association Dinner.<\/p>\n
First of all, I think Colbert’s material was devasting but his delivery was a little stiff and he was too dependent on his notes. But that’s really irrelevant. The routine itself was more about media punditry than the president. even when he addressed politics, it was in the context of how a pundit would frame it. He never broke character.<\/p>\n
The most important thing that happened that night was the routine with Bush and his impersonator. Here’s the reason it’s important:<\/p>\n
In satirical comedy the key is to identify the most recognizable characteristic of the subject and amplify it. It must be an actual characteristic or there will be no humor<\/strong>. Think about every good impersonation you’ve ever seen whether political or celebrity. You laugh because you recognize the subject’s peculiarities.<\/span><\/p>\n And what charactersitic was selected for amplification in that routine:<\/p>\n Bush Is Stupid!<\/strong><\/p>\n This may not be news to people with measurable brain activity, but it is significant that it has now been validated in public by this event. And the fact that the president would participate in this certification of his idiocy is astonishing.<\/p>\n This was not typical self-deprecation, it was a confession. It was an acknowledgement that the one element of Bush’s character that is obvious to all is what an ignorant boob he is. And it was funny because it was true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m afraid a lot of folks are missing the big story on the White House Stenographer’s Association Dinner. First of all, I think Colbert’s material was devasting but his delivery was a little stiff and he was too dependent on his notes. But that’s really irrelevant. The routine itself was more about media punditry than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33206,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33206","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":0},"title":"Trump’s Cabinet May Be The Most Inexperienced Ever – And That’s Actually Good News!","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/24\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As the administration of President-Elect Donald Trump takes shape, there is one characteristic that is inescapable. Most of his appointees so far are utterly incapable of performing the jobs for which they have been chosen. There seems to be a deliberate effort to select people who lack the necessary skills\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10415,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10415","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":1},"title":"Cloak And Dagger: Why Did Fox News Fire Roger Ailes’ Right-Hand Man?","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/22\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Brian Lewis was quietly escorted from the Fox News offices by security personnel. It is only now becoming known that this long-time employee was terminated under suspicious circumstances. The statement from Fox News said that Lewis, Fox's Executive VP of Communications, was... \"...terminated for cause, specifically for issues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=561","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":2},"title":"Bill Moyers On Karl Rove","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/17\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It is becoming predictably routine that every time Bill Moyers speaks he produces a classic oration of eloquence and reason. Tonights closing commentary on his PBS Journal is no exception: In this excerpt, Moyers applies his unique insight to fellow Texan, Karl Rove:","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1376,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1376","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":3},"title":"I Have Here In My Hand A List Of Names…","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/25\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"On day two of Glenn Beck's week long special \"The New Republic,\" Beck extends his diatribe against the Obama czars. On the first day he focused extensively on Van Jones, who was a co-founder of Color of Change, the group spearheading the Beck advertiser boycott (coincidence?). Today Beck sought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10545,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10545","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":4},"title":"NewsBusters Asks: Is Bank Robber Wearing An Obama Mask Racist?","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/15\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"For those not familiar with NewsBusters, it fancies itself as a conservative media watchdog whose mission is \"Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias.\" It is a subsidiary of the uber-rightist Media Research Center. And it is also one of the most prolific apologists for radical right-wingers and racists like Ann\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1165,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1165","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":5},"title":"Media Bias According to Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/3\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"On the New Year's Eve edition of Special Report on Fox News, the matter of media bias was raised by anchor Jim Angle, sitting in for the retiring Brit Hume. It was a simple question, really. He merely remarked that it was \"a big year for the media\" and tossed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}