The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015-????)

xp yeah & it's not like his son died *super* recently? we've seen biden perform his grief. whatever a lot of people thought it was compelling. the angle i see in that conceptually is that colbert and biden both lost several members of their families in an accident but biden was the one who had to even make that connection known

"Colbert" was such an extremely well-defined character, but if you've seen non-Report interviews he's done with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Oprah and Letterman and whoever else, you realize the differences between the character and the real Colbert are so small. "Colbert" is more like hard liquor, and Colbert is like a glass of lemonade. Both drinks, each leaves you feeling different afterwards.

Love the phrase "a lot of people." It's so exactly how it sounds.

xp yeah & it's not like his son died *super* recently?

I know, right? That was all the way back on May 30th! That was eons ago here on Internet World!

yeah, we've all seen you perform your grief, biden, give us something new!

yeah, i can have deep reservations about biden as a politician and public figure and still empathize with his grief. there's a mirror neuron thing happening there, you see his face crumple and it's hard not to moved.

no father should bury his son, it's a horrible thing. biden has some real responsibility for that happening to many other fathers, as he voted for the second iraq war.

Imagining that as a follow-up question right now. It's playing weird.

I only learned yesterday that Colbert lost his dad and brothers in a plane crash as a young man. I guess it's common knowledge?

I think I heard about it back when the Colbert Report began

Not a young man -- he was 10. xp

I did not know that. I did know he is a Catholic who teaches Sunday School and always thought it was cool bc he would do stories about religious hypocrisy by using his knowledge to quote and distort Bible verses in a way that subverted them and hinted at a more compassionate, progressive, rational Christianity. The week after he left the whole anti-gay Christian pizza place story hit and he was sorely missed.

I learned about the crash through wikipedia one night, as I was browsing plane crashes by year (as one does.)

whoa, check out the date: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_212

he wasn't acerbic with jeb bush though -- he told him he might vote for him!!

― J0rdan S., Friday, September 11, 2015 3:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't he also preface a question by saying "Say there is a non-zero percent chance I vote for you..."?

Biden interview was good, too bad Joe had nothing to say

Didn't he also preface a question by saying "Say there is a non-zero percent chance I vote for you..."?

― Evan, Friday, September 11, 2015 4:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah that's what i mean except i don't think he even said "say" -- he was just like "there's a non-zero chance i vote for you"

I remembered it as "say" because it prefaced a question about that hypothetical scenario iirc. "There's a non-zero chance I vote for you" is just a statement.

Paul Simon's voice is completely shot at this point.

Jon Batiste's suit tonight >>>>

I feel like the band on this show were wormholed in from the early 1990s.

Colbert's attempts at humor last night were not that funny. Plus his singing with Paul Simon was worse than Fallon joining in with musicians

I liked the pre-taped bit about Yesterday's Coffee with Laura Linney.

Alright, I guess that was kinda humorous, but it dragged on a bit too long for me

i haven't watched it yet and i totally sympathize with his desire to get away from a character that, while so rewarding, was so taxing. but i'm worried he's in a weird "get bigger, stop giving people what they want" zone - like a hard rock band choosing to go acoustic for their first stadium tour.

"the audience for your blistering fox parody skews younger than most talk shows, wanna do a talk show?"

"Yeah! now i can stop doing blistering parody and just do amiable interviews with interesting people! like a more whimsical charlie rose!"

I only caught clips of the first show, but wondered if Colbert is trying to channel Dick Cavett or something.

I only caught clips of the first show, but wondered if Colbert is trying to channel Dick Cavett or something.

― Darin, Saturday, September 12, 2015 10:21 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i WISH this were the case. not getting this vibe at all tho

love that he had justice breyer on, tho as I watched I wondered if he was reconsidering; while breyer was talking at points it was so amazingly quiet there was like a low but audible background buzzing

Colbert has a manic aspect to his personality that keeps me on edge all the time.

Not sure if this is good or bad for a talk show host.

I really like his version of the Carnac the Magnificent gag.

I am enjoying the show a lot

He's not locked into bits & things kinda move around & it all feels very easy, it's fun & informative without trying super hard

he's got good bookers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3HMZsDioB8

musical guests have been a+ so far

Wasn't expecting him to hold Trump to the fire, but was maybe expecting more than that.

To see the reactions rn it's as if everyone expected Colbert to be the one to end the Trump nightmare.

Being just old enough to remember Carson's The Great Carnac, GTFO here with that hat bit.

That was from the first week. They haven't revisited it.

they just did!

he's terrible interviewing actors. he obviously just doesn't really care. which is kind of admirable, actually, but makes for awkward television.

yeah i've noticed an uptick in him having to break eye contact with the interview subject to, like, read the titles of their most popular movies off of a card on his desk, or really well known facts. i mean, i guess him being an actor doesn't mean he necessarily cares about keeping up with TV shows/movies but it's kinda surprising if he's just totally indifferent to that stuff.

"it says here... you're on a show... that's about... people... who live in chicago. what's that like?"

he asks a lot of versions of, "wow, you're really successful. that must be exciting!"

i like his somewhat self-conscious and stagey attempts at sincerity/authenticity/warts-and-all/what have you. he's got a long ways to go to lettermanland, but his space is a nice one.

i still don't find him funny in more than the slightest, if that

He's great at this kind of sketch comedy, maybe moreso than he is being himself:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/video/b_HvqaVOaU6Jzi__Kd2I56QknYWkmSdo/daniel-craig-reveals-a-mind-blowing-scene-from-spectre-/

Wait, so the singers for this band Lucius are chicken ladies?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/business/media/letting-stephen-colbert-be-stephen-colbert-whoever-that-is.html

looks like a new showrunner has been brought in. i haven't watched since the first week or two (thought i'd give him a year or so to figure things out) - has anyone else?

I've been watching semi-regularly. It's alright! Not much chemistry with the bandleader/band, who doesn't seem like he has any banter skills at all. Shame.

CBS is like some convenience store bathroom you need to ask for a key to get into, but the cashier is fighting with his girlfriend on the phone so you just decide to use a bush outside (Hulu)

Reading that article, I keep hearing Garry Marshall as Sumner Redstone.