Professional blow-hard Stephen Colbert is ready to race.
Comedy Central's "right-wing" personality Stephen Colbert has thrown his weight behind the US speedskating team ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics. For those outside the US and not aware of the Colbert Nation, Stephen plays a bloviating pundit who hosts a news/commentary show airing directly after Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," where he earned his comedy stripes. "The Colbert Report" (don't pronounce the t's) specializes in hyperventilating obscurantist diatribes à la televised rabble-rousers Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, or Bill O'Reilly. The mockery extends even to aesthetics with a set laden with flags, eagles, and red-white-and-blue bunting -- all surrounding a huge desk in the shape of a "C."
Colbert manifests the sort of personality cult that accompanies such commentators by exhorting his followers to attach his name to whatever they can. Fans have responded. His nomenclature empire now includes a water beetle and the undetermined solution to a mathematical problem. Most famously, loyal voters made "Colbert" the name for a new wing scheduled for installation on the International Space Station. NASA balked and instead invented a COLBERT acronym for an exercise treadmill in the station. >>Follow the link below left to read on.
All this could be grandstanding, but NASA undoubtedly enjoyed the publicity as much as Colbert did. The speedskating stunt provided similar aid to an American institution. When one of Team USA's uniform sponsors, Dutch bank DSB, went bankrupt only weeks before the Olympics. The Colbert Report brought skater Katherine Reutter on the show. She made him sign a sponsorship agreement on-air, and Colbert asked his fans to contribute saying, "We've got to step up and make sure it is America's 38-inch thighs on that medal platform!"
Ms. Reutter's "billboard thighs" with the Colbert logo.
The project has more than replaced the $300,000 shortfall. The team even did its part to add some controversy when gold medalist Shani Davis denounced Colbert as a "jerk," and others wondered aloud if the comedian was turning the sport into a joke. Never one not to milk an opportunity, Colbert challenged Davis to a race, which only kept the fundraising drive in the spotlight. Of course, Colbert looked absolutely hopeless on the ice, and Davis skated like a blur around the track. The stunt supported a good cause, offered up hearty laughs, and proved the athleticism of the sport and the dedication of these athletes. The show might savage the media, but it seems the man himself does have patriotic bona fides. Last year, he did a series of shows for American forces in Iraq, brilliantly titled "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando." Maybe he can't skate, but Colbert is definitely boxing clever.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Skate Expectations - Speedskating Race - Shani Davis | ||||
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