The Colbert Report

Last night was the premier of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central. This is the "Son of the Daily Show" and follows that program at 10:30 CT. Many of you may know what a huge fan I am of the Daily Show, but I don't have much faith in spin-offs. So I was expecting the worst, but "The Colbert Report" (pronounce it as if it were French) was clever and funny as Hell, and I laughed way more than I did at the "Daily Show" just before it.

Ostensibly, Steven Colbert puts himself in the role of a television pundit, much like Bill O'Reilly or Chris Matthews. He also has a celebrity guest like "The Daily Show" does, and last night it was TV news-drone Stone Phillips. That was pretty damn funny if only because Steven Colbert steals a lot of anchormannerisms from Phillips, and you could see them interact. The news segments were great: "If I'm not scaring the crap out of you, then I'm not doing my job as a journalist." He also describes his mission of "truthiness," which I can't do justice to here.

Watching the show last night, I also was made aware that Colbert has a Peabody Award (actually 2 of them when I looked it up), which is a prestigious journalism award. He has it on display on the show's set, and last night asked Stone Phillips "So, do you keep your Peabody next to YOUR Emmy?"

The motion graphics at the beginning of the show - all bald eagles and American flags and stuff - made me die laughing, because of how the real news networks co-opt all of that patriotic stuff so much on their own.

Right. Damn funny. I taped it. Hope you watch it. Let "truthiness" reign.

Commercial over.