I’ve only seen Colbert on Bill O’Reilly’s show, but I didn’t think anyone spin circles around anyone. Colbert was quick (so much though I thought it might have been somewhat scripted), but O’Reilly wasn’t far behind and I thought it was obvious that he got the joke. He’s just not as good a comic talent as Colbert.
Both interviews are currently on the front page of http://www.crooksandliars.com/ for people who missed it/couldn’t view it.
Did anyone else? And how do you know if they were laughing at or laughing with?
Interesting opinion. I’ll have to look at the transcript, but I didn’t pick up the sense you mentioned earlier, even if there was “whining”.
How much did you actually watch?
I’ve seen several mentions of it in blogs and other message boards, so yeah, I guess they did.
The biggest laugh was at the grizzly bear line, so that wasn’t really “at” anybody, it was just a funny line. There were one or two other more subdued chuckles but I don’t remember what they were at other than that were Colbert lines. The video is up all over the place. You can watch it again yourself if you want to. There is distinct laughing in the background and O’Reilly has no audience in the studio.
Three or four minutes. I felt like I got the gist of it.
The Fox people giggled a few times. But let’s not let people know about that lest they infer that Republicans have a sense of humor. Perhaps we should just say that people were making noises in the background. Yeah. Making noises. It’s true, and it sounds much more rude.
As Mallard Fillmore amply demonstrates, conservatives are reknown for their sense of humor – as in, “those guys don’t have a sense of humor.”
I’ve only seen the Colbert clip, but it looked like Bill was genuinely clued out to me, at least most of the time. He might have gotten a glimmer by then, though, if Colbert pulled the same stuff in the first half.
Yeah, but genuinely clued out doesn’t work for straight. If you’re genuinely clued out, you bumble and fumble and ruin the rhythm of the joke. You have to play off the other guy and set things up for him. That’s why Bill just looks stupid.
I didn’t see either show, but my hunch is that O’Reilly has too big an ego to let himself be the straight man. Being a straight man takes generosity (ie letting the other person get the laugh) that I don’t think Bill has. Back in the day, Jack Benny was frequently the straight man on his own show. He was generous with the laughs and as Benny reputedly said, “I can afford to be generous because it’s my show and I’ll be on it again next week.” While it is Bill’s show, he doesn’t like the share the limelight IMHO.
As for Olbermann, he really ripped O’Reilly last night for O’Reilly making some allegedly mean spirited comment about the Missouri recently rescued kidnap victims. I don’t think Keith is going to appear on O’Reilly’s show anytime soon.
I thought that it was interesting how the O’Reilly show went as Bill wasn’t able to rile or interrupt Colbert. O’Reilly’s schtick is to constantly interrupt and harangue and loudly speak over anyone whose opinions he objects to. He isn’t nearly as effective when faced with an “opponent” with a quick wit and who didn’t bite at the obvious attempts to keep him off-balance (“What is it Col-BER or COL-bert?”).
BTW, does O’Reilly have a crush on Jon Stewart or what? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Someone was laughing, not sure who it was. The vid is up on Youtube (obviously).
I just got done watching both segments online. I gotta say…Meh. Colbert on O’Reilly was just boring, with little humor. O’Reilly just isn’t funny, and Colbert was subdued, not going after O’Reilly much. I did love his line about O’Reilly not getting enough credit for being loud. O’Reilly on Colbert was slightly more funny, mostly because Colbert was in his element and didn’t feel the need to pull punches. But all in all, just Meh.
I liked both shows, and I think it would be pretty hard for Colbert to really stick it to O’Reilly while still staying in character, so I wasn’t surprised by that.
I was, however, surprised to find that the stolen microwave from the end of Colbert’s show really was a stolen microwave from O’Reilly’s green room! I figured it was just a gag. Not so:
The stolen microwave was the highlight of the episode IMHO. I’m no fan of O’Reilly, but I will admit he had at least one funny line (“with that photo I could be mayor of San Francisco…”)
Bill-O is obsessed with anyone who makes him look bad. Jon Stewart and Keith Obermann are merely his latest “crushes,” though I’m sure he still has a soft spot for Al Franken.
Well, in any case, I think its sweet.
Neither appearance blew me away, but I got a big laugh from the “30% Off” sticker on O’Reilly’s face when he appeared on the Report. Great way to deliver an insult.
If you’re implying he put that on himself, nope. ALL of the books had the sticker over his face.
I just finally looked at this. The interviews were okay, but I loved the “Great Minds Think Alike” clips on the Report (especially O’Reilly and Colbert saying the same thing and the Conan O’Brian clip of Conan shooting Colbert. “Typical east-coast liberal response.”)
Although it has nothing to do with the O’Reilly interview, I liked the correspondence between Colbert and Jon Stewart on last night’s Daily Show about Colbert having Chuck Schumer on his show after Stewart did and Jon responding that Colbert has a tradition of being last, seeing as he once portrayed the letter Z on Sesame Street. “You know what Z stands for, don’t you Jon? Zrevenge! I will have my zvengance!”
I assumed Colbert’s people did that. It’s not like I’ve considered buying O’Reilly’s book. Oh well, it was still funny.