So many amazing bits.
To President Obama: âYour hair is so white now it can talk back to the police.â
âLetâs give it up for the Secret Service. I donât want to be too hard on those guys. You know, because theyâre the only law enforcement agency that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.â
Probably rivals Colbertâs GWB one, for sure. High praise.
I donât know about âcrushed itâ. OK. Colbert crushed it.
Isnât it heartwarming how a minor matter like systematic persecution of whistleblowers and leaks at unprecedented rates isnât 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 weâre all on the same team here; because we wouldnât be invited otherwiseâŚ
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, Colbertâs 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 eveningâs hired professional entertainer.
This was so cutting that there isnât a part of the fifty states and the District of Columbia that isnât still bleeding. I havenât 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 onâŚ
Ho ho ho - drone strikes!
A revolting night of governmental toadies and their sycophants.
Perhaps you underestimate the power of satire. Itâs not a short term solution, but it can turn the ship around.
Itâs all his delivery, because Iâm sure Obama doesnât write all his own jokes. But his comedic timing is impeccable.
Also impeccable: Michelleâs hair. I wish sheâd let the curls go all the time!
I havenât 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 Iâm one. She went all in and nailed it.
She seems okay but I agree that Colbertâs 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.
Itâs a pretty poor comparison to bring up Colbert. His performance was pretty fierce satire aimed directly at the administration. This was 15 minutes of
âFox 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.]â
There was about 8-10 minutes of pretty good stuff at around the 15-minute mark, but âcrushing itâ is a little excessive.
I did like Obamaâs 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 thatâs happened under Obama, and tellingly doesnât care *
[size=9]*obviously a generalisation, & if you read BB I wouldnât 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, Iâll note that George Bush did a bit for one of his WHCDs that was a bit like the âAnger Translatorâ 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 "reallyâ thinking.
Adonai got it right. Colbert crushed it because he was speaking truth to power. Now that weâve 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 weâre 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 Strongâs jokes. They were topical, a few were cutting, a few didnât work. I went back to watch Colbertâs, 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 Bushâs face that other people in DC wouldnât, but itâs not like he was the only person in the country to say those things. The core of it begins with the bit about, âHe not only stands for thing, he stands on things ⌠things like aircraft carriers, and rubble, and recently flooded city squares.â Then seguing into Bushâs 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. Theyâre so powerful you can stand in front of them and tell jokes at their expense and theyâll even laugh along, it just shows how powerful they are. Your jokes donât matter! At the end of the day, you go home, and theyâre still powerful.
I hope this one stung at least a little:
âA lot of people want Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but many think sheâs too idealist and her proposed policies are too liberal. But look at President Obama. People thought the same thing about him and he didnât end up doing any of that stuff.â
