The End of the Colbert Report

 

"Folks, if this is your first time tuning in to the Colbert Report, I have some terrible news."
~ Stephen Colbert


Okay, so, I have been meaning to write about the series finale for the Colbert Report for some time now.

This was a great program that, on many levels, informed many Americans about the absurdities inherent in the political system, as well as on some occasions with American political thinking in general, better than (perhaps it could even be argued far better than) the major news networks.

There was a point for a while, particularly during the first few years of the Iraq invasion and the Bush White House in general, when you could not really easily find any major counterpoint to FOX News (Faux News) and neocon thinking on television. And people were wondering why so many were flocking to see Moore's Fahrenheit 911 and Bowling for Columbine?

It was because the alternative was being spoon fed an imbalanced diet of what passed for "news" on the major networks, and there was little to no real other major voice of scrutiny of Bush and his administration that you could hear from, let alone consistent and critical responses and opinions from news sources.

What passes for news in this country pretty much is opinion anyway these days, but it seems that every single news source back then simply went ahead with the invasion of Iraq specifically, and whatever the Bush White House wanted more generally. I remember one figure that probably would be deemed by many to be a liberal firebrand now, Matt Lauer of Today on NBC, speaking admirably about Tony Blair and his political bravery for going along with the Bush White House for the invasion. Yes, political bravery was what he was admiring, rather than reporting on the absence of any true scrutiny, or the fact that an overwhelming majority of Brits were actually opposed to the war, and for very good reasons. When the supposedly "liberal media" were too afraid to be critical of a foreign head of state for plunging his nation into a major blunder like the Iraq war, how could we possibly expect any even remotely "fair and balanced" news reporting from major sources? The most visible opposition to the Iraq war could be seen in interviews with Hollywood stars that everyone got offended by and ignored, movies from Michael Moore, commentaries and opinion pieces in some publications, and, of course, news stories about protests (which often numbered in the tens of thousands).

But then there was the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and, before too long, the Colbert Report spun off of that. These were two smart "news" programs on Comedy Central that, in fact, did some serious investigative work, and revealed some deep and ugly truths about the American political system and way of doing things, albeit through a comedic lens.

The fact of the matter is that those two shows became informative in a true sense in a way that the major media stations never could be anymore. They went behind the scenes and informed Americans of certain realities that major stations and media outlets failed to time and time again.

In the process, despite being comedy shows, many Americans began to get their news through comedy shows, which was rather ironic.

And rather brilliantly, Colbert was able to don the character of an over the top neocon in order to bring such ironies to his audience, which was billed as the "Colbert Nation."

For nine years, the Colbert Report joined the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to not only entertain people, but also to educate them. The Daily Show continues, and hopefully, something else will join it on a nightly basis as well, because losing the Daily Show would be a huge gap that, I suspect, the nation needs filled.

It ended on Thursday evening, with a final episode that was a grand farewell to the show, and the lasting memory will be the stars who came out to help Colbert sing "We'll Meet Again" that included Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Henry Kissinger, Willie Nelson, Alan Alda, Michael Stipe, Cindy Lauper, Arianna Huffington, James Franco, Tom Brokaw Patrick Stewart, Charlie Rose, Katie Couric, and, of course, Jon Stewart, and with Randy Newman on piano, among many others. Also, through video, there were some notable personalities that joined in the song, particularly former President Bill Clinton.


Here were all of the guests for the finale song identified:




And here is a video link offering the entirety of the series finale:




And just in case you missed it, here was the video clip of Colbert roasting then President George W. Bush back in 2006, at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. He said things about Bush and his presidency that many detractors had long wanted to hear, and he did it while standing right next to the sitting president! The most famous line of the night, of course, was that "truth has a well-known liberal bias." Classic! I have seen a few roasts in this spirit, but surely, this one has to be the greatest, and, quite frankly, the most well-timed and well-deserved, of them all! Take a look for yourself: