I had a brief interaction with him at work. Very smart, very engaging - if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was a politician. He has that easy charm.
John Oliver’s run on the Report was awesome. I’d love to see him take over. Shame he can’t.
His sister is the politician in the family! But they must share that politician gene.
The whole “always been at war with Eurasia” thing is probably the most gobsmacking thing about mainstream evangelicalism. You can even grab pre- and post-Roe editions of popular Bibles and see how words were subtly changed to support an anti-abortion stance*. Although the contraception part is actually new, in a decade or two it’ll have “always been what we believe” too.
But this whole discussion belongs in P&R, where I usually know better than to tread :)
- A good place to plug Slacktivistif you weren’t already aware. If I were a Christian, Fred is probably someone I’d want to emulate.
I know it’s silly, it being television and all, but I’ve always felt that watching Ferguson was more intimate than the earlier shows. The time slot and Craig himself made it seem, to me at least, more like a smaller venue. I always liked him better than Letterman. And forget Leno. Watched a couple of times and he bored me.
However, it’s just too bad that John Oliver decamped for HBO so recently. If he had held on just a bit longer, he’d probably get to develop a new show for the timeslot.
The Bugle Daily! Half an hour of terrible puns, cricket trivia and hotties from history.
Eastasia. Eurasia is the nation they’re originally at war with.
ARISE!
Stephen Colbert has been knocking out the ratings this past couple of weeks thanks to the Republican and Democratic conventions. He’s resurrected his “Stephen Colbert” character from the old Colbert Report and was even doing bits with Jon Stewart. It’s what everyone wanted, right?
Not Viacom. They sent a C&D to CBS telling them that the character “Stephen Colbert” is their IP. Colbert responded by announcing last night that he can never do the character again. But in typically snarky fashion…
[quote]
On Wednesday night, he introduced, live via satellite from Philadelphia, “Stephen Colbert’s identical twin cousin,” who showed up wearing a short-sleeved American flag shirt and saying, “Hello, America! Hello, Colbert country! Stay strong. Be brave.”
The new character insisted he was “totally different” from his cousin who hosted the Colbert Report for a decade.
“This is my first appearance on TV ever,” he said, and he offered his services as a permanent Late Show correspondent.
“I’m happy to be here tonight to save this country and join the Late Show team,” he said. “Whenever you need me, wild horses ridden by corporate lawyers could not keep me away.”[/quote]
So, is Colbert in the clear? That’s complicated.
[quote]
If Viacom did sue, it would probably prompt a fair use defense; those can be complicated, and no doubt if a judge was asked to weigh the purpose and character of the use, the nature of “Stephen Colbert,” the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market, it would add up to one helluva opinion. Colbert could also try out an argument that “Stephen Colbert’s identical twin cousin” is nothing like “Stephen Colbert” and might take heart in a 1983 decision concerning an alleged Superman rip-off on ABC. There, the 2nd Circuit justices wrote, “Stirring one’s memory of a copyrighted character is not the same as appearing to be substantially similar to that character, and only the latter is infringement.”
If Colbert emerged victorious, “Stephen Colbert’s identical twin cousin” might be entitled to its own copyright. After all, judges have ruled that parodies of parodies can gain their own protection. But Colbert probably wouldn’t own it. That’s right. It’d be CBS’ under that same work-for-hire doctrine.[/quote]
When I saw The Late show pull out the old Stephen Colbert persona, the first thing I thought was “Wow, Im surprised Viacom allow them to do that”. Now Im surprised that they did that without permission. I hope this work around works because Colbert is back in his element as he’s so much better this way. They also need to full time hire Stewart and make them co-hosts. Those two together would destroy late night ratings.
We would return to watching each night were that the case.
Well, now that Stephen’s identical twin cousin will be on the show more often, maybe I’ll catch it myself.
Here’s an year-end interview with Stephen Colbert at the end of 2016. Great stuff. I’m still so used to the character of Stephen Colbert that seeing the real Stephen is quite refreshing. I should watch the Late Show more often.