Colbert doesn't pull any punches...

Even if you're not a big Colbert fan... you have to watch this. I like the Daily Show, but haven't watched Colbert's show much. That's going to change...

Stephen Colbert was one of the comedians signed up to provide the entertainment at the White House Correspondents ' Association Dinner. I'm not sure who decides who gets the invites to these dinners, but everyone was there. And Colbert, standing about ten feet from W and Laura, made his typical straight-faced-style of jokes about everything.. I mean everything.. from Karl Rove, to Valerie Plame, to the retired-generals-calling-for-Rumsfeld-to-step-down thing. It's one thing to hear these jokes occasionally on his show, but this was basically a "best of", spinning through half the scandals of the last few years, while the President was sitting right there. I mean, I find the stuff hilarious, but it even made me distinctly uncomfortable, particularly when Colbert talks directly to W during the show. I'm guessing a lot of people felt that way, because there was a distinct lack of laughter (shocked silence?) after a number of key jokes.

An interesting thing to note is the camera shots. Usually, while Colbert is
making a joke at someone's expense, the camera will jump to them for a few seconds, show a reaction (which in a many cases seemed more like a grimace than a smile), then pop back to Colbert. However, even when Colbert was talking directly to him, the camera never jumped to Bush. I'm guessing either his reactions weren't very favorable, or he had some sort of contract worked out beforehand that they wouldn't show his reactions to things. In any case, I think it's pretty lame, but typical of this administration's press control.

Here are links to the video on YouTube. You can probably google a link to a downloadable version somewhere if you prefer...

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3