Stephen Colbert v Eric ‘Schmidthead’ and Jonathan Rosenberg

(via @StephenAtHome)

“We’ve got 42 shows left. Something like that. That’s it,” Stephen Colbert said.

“That’s terrible,” Eric Schmidt replied.

“That’s lovely,” Colbert corrected. “Forty-two shows and then we’ll do something else. I’m not dying.”

The proceedings Tuesday night at the 92nd Street Y were supposedly about Google executive chairman Schmidt and Google executive Jonathan Rosenberg—coauthors of How Google Works, a book-length treatise on the secrets of innovation and success at the technology behemoth, which they’ve been promoting on every conceivable media platform over the past few days.

But these two billionaire masters of the universe were absolutely dominated by their ostensible interrogator, who at one point, when Schmidt interrupted to make some comment or other, sternly admonished: “I’m talking, Eric.”

Colbert also introduced the term “Schmidthead” into the conversation. And he certainly wasn’t dying.

The Comedy Central star’s lightning wit, which is likely to serve him well when he takes over the CBS Late Show from David Letterman next year, was very much on display, to the packed crowd’s obvious delight. It was a textbook you-had-to-be-there situation, and it’s probably a fool’s errand to try to replicate the merriment in written words.

————————–

At another moment, Colbert recounted highlights of his deposition under oath in the seven-years-running copyright infringement lawsuit that Comedy Central’s parent company, Viacom, filed against the Google subsidiary, YouTube.

“They kept asking me questions about things I said on my show,” Colbert said, “because when YouTube started Jon Stewart and I were like 25 percent of all clips on YouTube.”

When a Google attorney demanded that he justify a snarky remark made about the lawsuit on The Colbert Report — and used the second-person singular “you” — Colbert had to clarify, “My character said that, not me.”

“What’s the difference?” the lawyer asked.

“He hasn’t been sworn in.”

The lawsuit was settled in March of this year, under undisclosed terms. Onstage at the 92nd Street Y, Schmidt boasted: “At the end of the day, we won.”

“Congratulations,” Colbert retorted, in a tone that made clear that he meant the opposite.

Full Article: The Daily Beast.

For more on the event, “13 Secrets We Learned When Stephen Colbert Grilled Google’s Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg”.