So many amazing bits.
To President Obama: “Your hair is so white now it can talk back to the police.”
“Let’s give it up for the Secret Service. I don’t want to be too hard on those guys. You know, because they’re the only law enforcement agency that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.”
Probably rivals Colbert’s GWB one, for sure. High praise.
I don’t know about “crushed it”. OK. Colbert crushed it.
Isn’t it heartwarming how a minor matter like systematic persecution of whistleblowers and leaks at unprecedented rates isn’t allowed to stand in the way of a lighthearted evening of fun and laughs with the fourth estate? It really helps drive home the fact that we’re all on the same team here; because we wouldn’t be invited otherwise…
Colbert made it relevant. She crushed it.
I let the record speak for itself.
I agree that whille Strong was amusing and got in a few provocative zingers, Colbert’s performance was the one that crushed. In fact, it struck me at the time, and still does, as not only incredibly well written and well delivered, but damn near historic in its righteous effrontery, and maybe even its impact.
And speaking of delivery, Obama as an acting president has been an incredible disappointment to me, but I thought his delivery at this event was better than that of Cicely Strong, the evening’s hired professional entertainer.
This was so cutting that there isn’t a part of the fifty states and the District of Columbia that isn’t still bleeding. I haven’t had time to watch the rest of the routine, but when I read that yesterday, it was one white-hot paper-cut.
Boy, i bet their sides were SO sore after all the zingers involving unconstitutional power grabs, idealogical IRS persecutions, drug war escalation, middle eastern invasions and so on…
Ho ho ho - drone strikes!
A revolting night of governmental toadies and their sycophants.
Perhaps you underestimate the power of satire. It’s not a short term solution, but it can turn the ship around.
It’s all his delivery, because I’m sure Obama doesn’t write all his own jokes. But his comedic timing is impeccable.
Also impeccable: Michelle’s hair. I wish she’d let the curls go all the time!
I haven’t watched SNL in a long time (other that the random clip here or there) so I had no idea, but wow! Ms. Strong has some new fans and I’m one. She went all in and nailed it.
She seems okay but I agree that Colbert’s speech was shocking and incisive in a way this one is not. Her delivery is not adding much to the performance; she is reading so much from her notes. I think if she had this memorized it would have been so much stronger.
I started watching, but had to turn it off. I found it so distracting that she kept looking down at her notes.
It’s a pretty poor comparison to bring up Colbert. His performance was pretty fierce satire aimed directly at the administration. This was 15 minutes of
“Fox New is here. [Weak Fox News joke.] MSNBC is here. [Weak MSNBC joke.] Huffington Post is here. [Weak Huffington Post joke.] Buzzfeed is here. [Weak and obvious Buzzfeed joke.] The cast of Downton Abbey is here. [Weak Downton Abbey joke.]”
There was about 8-10 minutes of pretty good stuff at around the 15-minute mark, but “crushing it” is a little excessive.
I did like Obama’s piece though, particularly because he almost sounded honest when he was getting angry.
I think the difference between Colbert & Strong is that he was making his commentary at a time when a lot of what he dealt with was verboten by the media, especially when Cheney could invoke 9/11 every 5 minutes.
Now, America & its media is overall aware of the shit that’s happened under Obama, and tellingly doesn’t care *
[size=9]*obviously a generalisation, & if you read BB I wouldn’t catergorise you as being part of that massive group[/size]
Colbert was the one who made the WHCD go viral and become a thing people started anticipating. After Colbert, you have to go big at this thing.
BTW, I’ll note that George Bush did a bit for one of his WHCDs that was a bit like the “Anger Translator” premise. He had a Bush impersonator up there with him. Bush would say something mild and the Bush impersonator would rephrase it to show what he was "really’ thinking.
Adonai got it right. Colbert crushed it because he was speaking truth to power. Now that we’ve all grown accustomed to pointing and laughing at the elephant in the room w/o doing anything about it, this seemed like just another day at the office for American infotainment. The most unsettling thing about her remarks was that Cory thought she crushed it. Perhaps we’re all so jaded that the only thing left for us to do when confronted with the truth is point and laugh.
Colbert looked at his notes much less frequently, making his a better performance in terms of technique. Strong seemed like she needed more rehearsal. I liked some of Strong’s jokes. They were topical, a few were cutting, a few didn’t work. I went back to watch Colbert’s, and frankly, with a few exceptional moments, it seems a lot less courageous now than it did at the time. Of course, he said things to Bush’s face that other people in DC wouldn’t, but it’s not like he was the only person in the country to say those things. The core of it begins with the bit about, “He not only stands for thing, he stands on things … things like aircraft carriers, and rubble, and recently flooded city squares.” Then seguing into Bush’s imperviousness to facts, NSA wiretapping, secret prisons, and ripping the media for being toadies. This was really strong but short, and he spent more time bashing the media than he did Bush.
There was a bit of a court jester element. They’re so powerful you can stand in front of them and tell jokes at their expense and they’ll even laugh along, it just shows how powerful they are. Your jokes don’t matter! At the end of the day, you go home, and they’re still powerful.
I hope this one stung at least a little:
“A lot of people want Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but many think she’s too idealist and her proposed policies are too liberal. But look at President Obama. People thought the same thing about him and he didn’t end up doing any of that stuff.”
