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We watch The Daily Show. (But you already knew that.) We enjoy it. We encourage our friends to watch it, too, and think slightly less of them if they don't. For years, Stephen Colbert had been our favourite Daily Show correspondent -- the best at impersonating an actual newscaster, and the best at cracking up Stewart. We loved him from his wingtipped toes right up to his elfin right ear. We were cautiously excited that his right-wing jackass character was getting spun off onto his own show -- cautious because it seemed like too many levels of irony to actually function as satire, but excited because...it's Colbert. Even if it was kind of bad, it'd still be mostly good. It started out perhaps a little too precious, but then sometime this spring really came into its own, and we were happy that Colbert had, like his former colleague Steve Carell, left his safe, cozy berth on Daily Show and made a success of himself. He deserved a tip of our hat, and not a wag of our finger. Frankly, we admired his balls.
The problem is...well, to be completely honest, we're not sure exactly what the problem is. It was as though, one night, we turned off The Colbert Report and snuggled down in bed, perfectly entertained and content, and then the next morning, the dude was fucking everywhere! In March: a seven-figure book deal, for a title Colbert would write, alone, in Report character. In April: a performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner. In May: a position among the "Artists & Entertainers" of the Time 100, a list of "People Who Shape Our World." In June: an honorary doctorate and commencement address at Illinois's Knox College. In July: headlining Independence Day celebrations on all the networks. In August: selling NBC a third show about the backstage mayhem at a sketch-comedy show, starring himself. In September: appearing on a new $15 bill.
Maybe he would not be doing those things, specifically, sure. But...do you see what we mean? Everywhere!
Here's what July will actually hold for Colbert (though for all we know, that Independence Day thing really could be true): starring in The Great New Wonderful and the film adaptation of Strangers With Candy. (Officially, Wonderful opens tomorrow, and Candy next week, but only in New York, so let's assume they will take a few weeks to penetrate America's creamy center.) And although it technically means more Colbert for us to contend with -- which should irritate us, at this point -- we're actually relieved. We are looking forward to seeing the man play a fictional role other than Bill O'Reilly's spiritual son, a.k.a. Stephen Colbert in air quotes.
It would be disingenuous for us to complain that anyone else is too arch or clever. Obviously. And that's not it -- or not quite it. We can appreciate Colbert's decision to invent a braying, uninformed, reactionary dimwit and use that character to attack the many braying, uninformed, reactionary dimwits on TV who aren't actually kidding. What makes "Stephen Colbert" a little tiresome, at this point, is the degree to which the character has started to take over the performer's public persona. For God's sake, he had to kick off his Knox College speech by stating that he wasn't sure whether he was invited to speak as himself, or as the air quotes version, and ended up delivering an address that switched off from one to the other, practically with each alternating paragraph. Lord knows that it is in vogue, at the moment, for celebrities to play self-mocking versions of themselves, from Entourage to Curb Your Enthusiasm (on which Colbert appeared, hilariously, in the finale a couple of seasons ago, as a Larry David stalker) to whatever the hell this abortion is. But they mostly just do it once, or for a few episodes, or -- at the outside -- for eight episodes a year, with a lot of hiatus months in between. Colbert does it for around eight episodes a month. Don't you think a put-on that relentless and opaque would start to wear on him?
Apparently it isn't wearing on Colbert's audience, from what we can see. The past couple of months have seen the people in the studio cheering with a frenzy to rival the intensity and duration we routinely get at the beginning of Late Night With Conan O'Brien -- and not just after the opening titles; they're also losing their shit at the cold open, and for all the recurring bits, from "Formidable Opponent" to (our favourite) "The Word." On The Daily Show, all we get is the opening burst of hysteria, normally; maybe a particularly sugar-fueled crowd will get it up for "This Week In God." (Which, since we've mentioned it, hasn't been the same since Colbert left it.) Anyway: the people there seem to have no problem with air quotes Colbert, so maybe we're just being picky or churlish or un-American -- which is, after all, this Canadian commentator's prerogative.
We love Stephen Colbert, the man. We loved Strangers With Candy and are thrilled that the movie's finally going to see the light of day; we're equally thrilled at the evidence that Colbert may have a post-Report exit strategy, since we're not so confident that the show will still work if 2008 finds a Democrat in the White House (pleeeeeeeeeeeease, God, let it happen). We realize that The Colbert Report with Colbert as himself would just duplicate The Daily Show, so while it's wrong for us to wish it off the air -- and strange even to suggest it since, in case we haven't actually mentioned this part, we really do watch every episode, and like it -- it will be better for the career of Colbert the performer once he can give up Colbert the conservative wacko. And wouldn't we like Colbert -- either Colbert -- even better if we occasionally got the chance to miss him?
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