During this last week of The Colbert Report many wonderful articles were written about the impact of the show, praise for Stephen’s character and questions on how it would all end. I have compiled a few of these articles. Please enjoy reading them and give us your thoughts about them in the comment section.
The New York Times
- Stephen Colbert Prepares Final ‘Colbert Report’
“Mr. Colbert has steered clear of commenting on his plans for the last show, other than on-air comments that the end is near. But whatever comic exercise Mr. Colbert devises to end his multi-award-winning run on Comedy Central, including perhaps some symbolic hara-kiri for the character he brought into American homes four nights a week, he has left an indelible mark on late-night television comedy.”
Time
Here’s What Critics Said About The Colbert Report When It Premiered
“Still, when the consensus emerged, it was one that stuck: The show was great. ‘[H]e packs more wit and acid commentary in 22 minutes of his one-man show than multiple skits by the entire cast of ‘SNL,’’ declared The New York Times and the The Los Angeles Times said that ‘Colbert, with his young Republican haircut and dead-serious eyes, is a terrifically artful speaker; there may be no better reader of writing on TV than him.’”
The Washington Post
Say Goodbye to ‘The Colbert Report’ with Our 3 Favorite Moments
“When The Colbert Report ends Thursday, TV will lose one of its best platforms for critiquing media, politicians and popular culture (though host Stephen Colbert will take over The Late Show in 2015 — as himself, not his bombastic alter-ego).”
Salon
Evil Fox News Idiocy, Unchecked: As Stephen Colbert Departs, Demented Loons set to Run Free
“The Colbert Report officially ends Thursday and with it goes one of the most important satire personas in our nation’s history. Following in the footsteps of Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard and Samuel Clemens’ Mark Twain, Colbert’s persona offered us an exaggerated version of one of our nation’s deepest social ills and, as with his counterparts, his focused on a main source for unsophisticated thinking. Colbert’s target? Pundits.”
Entertainment Weekly
15 Real Things the Fake ‘Stephen Colbert’ Has Done
“’Colbert’ isn’t a great creation just because of all the jokes he’s told and the absurdities he’s exposed via satire—he’s also a character for the ages because of the many ways he’s had an impact on the real world.”
The Hollywood Reporter
Tim Goodman: Colbert Will Continue to Thrive After ‘Colbert Report’
“What we’ll get from post-Report Colbert is pretty simple — fine, deceptively simple. Though fans aren’t used to seeing him out of character, the man who made up that character is one of the fiercest, smartest and fastest-thinking in all of television.”
Army Times
Odierno: Departing Colbert ‘Part of our Army Family’
“Stephen Colbert has been a tremendous supporter of our military over the years,” Odierno said in a statement to Army Times. “He has always shown a genuine concern for our Soldiers and their families, and we consider him part of our Army family. I wish him nothing but the best as he prepares for his new job with CBS late night!”
Bloomberg
Stephen Colbert Is Dead. Long Live Stephen Colbert
“The character was surprisingly pliable: Early critics worried that the TV Stephen was drawn so narrowly that he would inevitably grow one-note over the lifespan of a daily news show, but Colbert always kept the character moving and organic. And the reason for this, and the reason the show was so amazing—yet probably had to die at some point—was Colbert himself. The real one. Every year, the Colbert character faded a little bit more, and the real Colbert emerged. And this Colbert was wonderful.”
The Fiscal Times
Stephen Colbert: 9 Years of Epic ‘Truthiness’ Comes to an End
“The Colbert Report worked in part because of Colbert’s brilliance, and in part because the subjects he parodied continued to become more ridiculous themselves. […] Colbert was an agile entertainer who allowed bits of his own ridiculous personality to seep through in a way that both fit the show and allowed us to see the real man. His honest, devoted Catholicism was a surprising touchstone on the show, as was his love of bourbon and South Carolina BBQ (and I wouldn’t be surprised if he really hated bears). He was unabashedly nerdy, long before it was fashionable, with an almost disturbing love of The Lord of the Rings.”
National Post
The Right Man: How Stephen Colbert’s Perfect Parody Beat Jon Stewart at His Own Game
“Stewart doesn’t quite get there in his deadpan delivery. Sure, he points out political folly and asks it what the hell it was thinking but, as our own David Berry noted in these pages last week, it’s no longer enough for our satire to simply call attention to absurdity: it has to become it. And could there possibly be anything more absurd than Colbert’s caricature hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2006? Were the planners not in on the joke? Or were they way into it? We may never know, but it was certainly the most bizarre in-person indictment Dubya was subjected to during his eight years in office, whether he knew it or not.
In Stewart’s defence, he too has stuck to a schtick — he’s the consummate straight-man and he delivers information with such delightful sardonicism — but he also loses out to Colbert on an improvisational level. Colbert (the man) is a Second City guy, and without the skills he picked up there he never could’ve faced down so many of his ideological opponents without breaking character. Stewart, dare I say it, isn’t even a very good interviewer.”
Colbert News Hub Press Weighs in on ‘The Colbert Report’s’ Final Week
During this last week of The Colbert Report many wonderful articles were written about the impact of the show, praise for Stephen’s character and questions on how it would all end. I have compiled a few of these articles. Please enjoy reading them and give us your thoughts about them in the comment section.
The New York Times
“Mr. Colbert has steered clear of commenting on his plans for the last show, other than on-air comments that the end is near. But whatever comic exercise Mr. Colbert devises to end his multi-award-winning run on Comedy Central, including perhaps some symbolic hara-kiri for the character he brought into American homes four nights a week, he has left an indelible mark on late-night television comedy.”
Time
Here’s What Critics Said About The Colbert Report When It Premiered
“Still, when the consensus emerged, it was one that stuck: The show was great. ‘[H]e packs more wit and acid commentary in 22 minutes of his one-man show than multiple skits by the entire cast of ‘SNL,’’ declared The New York Times and the The Los Angeles Times said that ‘Colbert, with his young Republican haircut and dead-serious eyes, is a terrifically artful speaker; there may be no better reader of writing on TV than him.’”
The Washington Post
Say Goodbye to ‘The Colbert Report’ with Our 3 Favorite Moments
“When The Colbert Report ends Thursday, TV will lose one of its best platforms for critiquing media, politicians and popular culture (though host Stephen Colbert will take over The Late Show in 2015 — as himself, not his bombastic alter-ego).”
Salon
Evil Fox News Idiocy, Unchecked: As Stephen Colbert Departs, Demented Loons set to Run Free
“The Colbert Report officially ends Thursday and with it goes one of the most important satire personas in our nation’s history. Following in the footsteps of Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard and Samuel Clemens’ Mark Twain, Colbert’s persona offered us an exaggerated version of one of our nation’s deepest social ills and, as with his counterparts, his focused on a main source for unsophisticated thinking. Colbert’s target? Pundits.”
Entertainment Weekly
15 Real Things the Fake ‘Stephen Colbert’ Has Done
“’Colbert’ isn’t a great creation just because of all the jokes he’s told and the absurdities he’s exposed via satire—he’s also a character for the ages because of the many ways he’s had an impact on the real world.”
The Hollywood Reporter
Tim Goodman: Colbert Will Continue to Thrive After ‘Colbert Report’
“What we’ll get from post-Report Colbert is pretty simple — fine, deceptively simple. Though fans aren’t used to seeing him out of character, the man who made up that character is one of the fiercest, smartest and fastest-thinking in all of television.”
Army Times
Odierno: Departing Colbert ‘Part of our Army Family’
“Stephen Colbert has been a tremendous supporter of our military over the years,” Odierno said in a statement to Army Times. “He has always shown a genuine concern for our Soldiers and their families, and we consider him part of our Army family. I wish him nothing but the best as he prepares for his new job with CBS late night!”
Bloomberg
Stephen Colbert Is Dead. Long Live Stephen Colbert
“The character was surprisingly pliable: Early critics worried that the TV Stephen was drawn so narrowly that he would inevitably grow one-note over the lifespan of a daily news show, but Colbert always kept the character moving and organic. And the reason for this, and the reason the show was so amazing—yet probably had to die at some point—was Colbert himself. The real one. Every year, the Colbert character faded a little bit more, and the real Colbert emerged. And this Colbert was wonderful.”
The Fiscal Times
Stephen Colbert: 9 Years of Epic ‘Truthiness’ Comes to an End
“The Colbert Report worked in part because of Colbert’s brilliance, and in part because the subjects he parodied continued to become more ridiculous themselves. […] Colbert was an agile entertainer who allowed bits of his own ridiculous personality to seep through in a way that both fit the show and allowed us to see the real man. His honest, devoted Catholicism was a surprising touchstone on the show, as was his love of bourbon and South Carolina BBQ (and I wouldn’t be surprised if he really hated bears). He was unabashedly nerdy, long before it was fashionable, with an almost disturbing love of The Lord of the Rings.”
National Post
The Right Man: How Stephen Colbert’s Perfect Parody Beat Jon Stewart at His Own Game
“Stewart doesn’t quite get there in his deadpan delivery. Sure, he points out political folly and asks it what the hell it was thinking but, as our own David Berry noted in these pages last week, it’s no longer enough for our satire to simply call attention to absurdity: it has to become it. And could there possibly be anything more absurd than Colbert’s caricature hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2006? Were the planners not in on the joke? Or were they way into it? We may never know, but it was certainly the most bizarre in-person indictment Dubya was subjected to during his eight years in office, whether he knew it or not.
In Stewart’s defence, he too has stuck to a schtick — he’s the consummate straight-man and he delivers information with such delightful sardonicism — but he also loses out to Colbert on an improvisational level. Colbert (the man) is a Second City guy, and without the skills he picked up there he never could’ve faced down so many of his ideological opponents without breaking character. Stewart, dare I say it, isn’t even a very good interviewer.”