Posted 4/30/2006 05:56:00 PM by Douglas

Colbert walks on water, at least on basic cable, but I can't agree more with Ann's assessment of his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

Colbert could have tried to go on as a decent guy being a nice guest and supplying some perfectly pitched stand-up humor, the way Drew Carey has done in the past. But Colbert really isn't a stand-up comedian, and his humor is always set inside a character who is not him. He's an actor, and how hard, how monumentally awkward, it must have been to stay inside his character with such intimidating people around him. Wouldn't the sheer instinct for self-protection make him want to twinkle and say I kid but I love?

Wasn't it awful to perform without laughs? Maybe he should have filed the edges off a couple of jokes, but, basically, he did what he had to do to maintain his credibility with his real audience, those who watch "The Colbert Report." And we'll remember the horrible laughlessness of that night and marvel at the steely nerve of Stephen Colbert.

He was on 60 Minutes tonight, too. Is Colbert taking over the airways? We can only hope. We can only hope the other blow-hards realize just how full of shit the characters they play on TV are like Colbert. But then again, there are those out there that don't realize Colbert is joking.