# The Late Show with Stephen Colbert **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399 "2015-09-09T00:00:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/121 "2015-09-12T18:22:58Z")
Last night’s was definitely better than the first night. As I suspected. Does anyone else remember how absolutely horrible Fallon was at first? I mean, not just not as good as today, but downright BAD. Even experienced actors get nerves, and have to learn how to work well with their crews. Colbert is improving a whole lot faster than Fallon did. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/122 "2015-09-12T18:32:07Z")
> [@bosbfdsfd](#): > > Absolutely pathetic. Watching this clown fellate the President on a daily basis was bad enough, but this is just downright pitiful. You never watched the Colbert Report. 2014 join date? Surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/123 "2015-09-12T18:43:37Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Actually, one of the reasons I tuned in was to see… > > **WARNING - Once you know this you cannot un-know it!** > > …if CBS ponied up to get him a better prosthetic right ear. He lost it to cancer when he was young, and ever since I found this out I couldn’t help but always notice how asymmetrical and at times even ‘elf-like’ it looked. Looks like they did, I guess. Where did you hear this? Because the Wikipedia article says something different. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/124 "2015-09-12T19:38:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > You never watched the Colbert Report. > > 2014 join date? Surprising. I’m sure everything he knows about the show he got from select blogs. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/125 "2015-09-12T19:44:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Where did you hear this? Because the Wikipedia article says something different. Yeah, and common sense tells me if that were the case, the surgery would have made the ears symmetrical. He’s just got one bum ear - he’s deaf in that ear and it’s funny shaped. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/126 "2015-09-12T22:50:15Z")
I never found him funny before and I find him less so as a talk-show host. His entire schtick was straw-manning Republicans…which, yeah, if you’re liberal, probably funny, but not very complex or interesting humor. About the level of a 4th grader making a funny face and telling another kid “This is you!”. He was tedious and annoying before. Now he’s tedious, annoying and nauseatingly faux-sincere (and duuuuulllll). If his boring show doesn’t improve dramatically very quickly, I suspect it’ll go the way of the Chevy Chase late-night show. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/127 "2015-09-13T03:09:28Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I never found him funny before and I find him less so as a talk-show host. His entire schtick was straw-manning Republicans…which, yeah, if you’re liberal, probably funny, but not very complex or interesting humor. About the level of a 4th grader making a funny face and telling another kid “This is you!”. > > He was tedious and annoying before. Now he’s tedious, annoying and nauseatingly faux-sincere (and duuuuulllll). If his boring show doesn’t improve dramatically very quickly, I suspect it’ll go the way of the Chevy Chase late-night show. No, his schtick was making fun of Fox-News-style “news” shows. And he has won awards for the intelligence of his satire. What I see here is someone who can’t find humor in something if they disagree politically. And seeing as I watch South Park and SfDebris and Penn and Teller–all libertarians–and still find them all hilarious, I think I have room to talk. I also have seen nothing fake about his sincerity, and think it may be your strong cynicism in play. At least, from what I’ve observed of your personality, I think you’d fit those who seem to initially view sincerity with suspicion. Though, at least, I appreciate that you checked out his show despite your hatred for him. You can’t help what you don’t like. But, if he does fail, I don’t think it will be for the reasons you stated. It will be because he didn’t find a way to be himself and stay funny. Or a way to not be himself and let that be something unique in Late Night. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/128 "2015-09-13T03:32:11Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > If his boring show doesn’t improve dramatically very quickly, I suspect it’ll go the way of the Chevy Chase late-night show. You think he’ll be done in five weeks? Or what are you saying when you say it’ll go the way of the Chevy Chase show? [And his super PAC was one of the most brilliant satirical commentaries ever.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colbert_Super_PAC) I’m amazed if you consider that not very complex or intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/129 "2015-09-13T03:49:17Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > This chanting made the first few minutes of the Colbert Report unwatchable. I haven’t seen him on his new show yet, but if they’re doing that again, I simply cannot, and will not, watch. The chanting became Colbert’s signature opening on the _Report_ and carried over to the _Late Show_. Just like Bill Maher’s crowd-participation thing is the outrageously rousing applause when he walks on, so he can deliver his signature line, “I know why you’re happy tonight …”. I find it incredible that someone could be bothered by a few seconds of either when the _Late Show_ blasts you with LOUD commercials of such utter banality as to be offensive, relentlessly insinuating their odious messages into your defenseless brain at least every ten minutes, LOUDLY exhorting you to buy things you don’t need and don’t want. Some of these commercial marathons have run on for as long as nine consecutive minutes, almost as long as the actual program before the break for the next commercial marathon. **That** you’re OK with? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/130 "2015-09-13T14:11:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, his schtick was making fun of Fox-News-style “news” shows. And he has won awards for the intelligence of his satire. > > What I see here is someone who can’t find humor in something if they disagree politically. And seeing as I watch South Park and SfDebris and Penn and Teller–all libertarians–and still find them all hilarious, I think I have room to talk. > > I also have seen nothing fake about his sincerity, and think it may be your strong cynicism in play. At least, from what I’ve observed of your personality, I think you’d fit those who seem to initially view sincerity with suspicion. > > Though, at least, I appreciate that you checked out his show despite your hatred for him. You can’t help what you don’t like. > > But, if he does fail, I don’t think it will be for the reasons you stated. It will be because he didn’t find a way to be himself and stay funny. Or a way to not be himself and let that be something unique in Late Night. Again, I like Stephen Colbert the performer and think he is very talented. But he _is a liberal. So The Colbert Report was ultimately [just so much more of this.](https://www.youtube.com//watch?v=IGl1CCprCeU) Jon Stewart set the mold when he took over The Daily Show. He changed it from a genuinely funny, satirical look at how TV news had become vapid, self-serving info-tainment, and turned it into his own liberal soapbox that was actually being taken seriously as a ‘news’ show for the younger generation. IOW he turned it into the very kind of show that the original Craig Kilborn-version of TDS used to mock mercilessly!_ Stewart is particularly annoying because he claims to be a Libertarian. And when a celebrity claims that it means one of two things. Either- [list=A] [li]They’re a Republican who’s also an atheist.[/li]or [li]They’re a liberal Democrat who wants to appear as being more in the center. [/li][/list] Stewart is obviously B (and he’s a nine-figure rich, limousine-liberal to boot). So it was very disappointing to have Colbert just be another Stewart clone. And its not just because they disagrees with my political views. Liberal comedy is _lazy_ comedy. Louis CK is a flaming liberal but he manages to be a true comic genius. But much more than politics, Colbert reminds me of great actors like Peter Sellers or Robert De Niro. They are so great at becoming characters partly because they’re terrible at being themselves. I cannot think of a single instance of ever seeing Stephen Colbert appearing anywhere and him letting his guard down, him not doing ‘shtick’. And the few times when it seemed like he was trying to do that on the premiere of _The Late Show_, it was embarrassing. It was like he suddenly became totally lost and unprofessional. If he doesn’t find his real voice he will not last at this job… ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/131 "2015-09-13T14:37:12Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > If he doesn’t find his real voice he will not last at this job… My problem with the first week of shows was that, I don’t think he said one thing (exclusive of the interviews) that he didn’t read off the teleprompter. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/132 "2015-09-13T15:44:37Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Jon Stewart set the mold when he took over _The Daily Show_. He changed it from a genuinely funny, satirical look at how TV news had become vapid, self-serving info-tainment, and turned it into his own liberal soapbox that was actually being taken seriously as a ‘news’ show for the younger generation. That’s absolute total rubbish. Stewart didn’t care who he skewered – his passion was exposing the stupidities and hypocrisies across the whole spectrum of politics, and indeed the stupidities and hypocrisies of celebrity life in general wherever he found it. Left, right, center, and non-political – everyone was in his sights. And he did it with incredibly wit and creativity that he somehow managed to maintain day in and day out for four days every week. If young people got real news out of the Daily Show, it was because these revelations were satirizing real events, often with a perspective and insight that you wouldn’t find anywhere else – his researchers were amazing in the background stuff they could come up with. It was also because the Daily Show interviews were usually substantive discussions with smart and interesting people who had actually made real and important contributions to the world, not with vapid celebrities. Your opinion of the Daily Show sounds like either you rarely watched it and got your opinion from some right-wing blowhard on talk radio, or else whatever you saw of it was viewed through the prism of hypersensitive political partisanship. As for Colbert being “liberal”, I’m pretty sure that every talk show host has political leanings of some kind, but I’m not interested in their politics or their religion or their personal life. Why would those things matter? I care that Colbert is smart and witty and seems to be trying to re-invent the tired traditional Carson-Leno late-night format and turn it into something different and fresh. He got off to a weak start but, as already said, he improved rapidly in successive days in just his first week. I hope he succeeds and I wish him well. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/133 "2015-09-13T16:12:39Z")
I thought the Biden interview was fascinating and well thought-out. Biden presented himself in a way that showcased his authenticity, the quality that would be the difference-maker if he were to seek the presidency. Colbert brought gravity to the situation with his approach, and his own experience with tragedy. It not only was “different” for a late night show, so pretty ballsy for a first-week show, it showed a clear look at authentic Stephen Colbert - no blowhard filter this time. Colbert’s ability to navigate this type of interview on a late night talk show and show a true picture of himself felt like an interesting start to me. Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/134 "2015-09-13T22:58:29Z")
The chanting is pretty annoying, but not nearly as much as the stupid fucking dancing he does when he come out on stage. That has got to stop to keep me watching. Like anyone cares if I watch. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/135 "2015-09-14T10:15:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Watching last night right now. > > Wow, he is way better on his third show than first. Night and day. > > I have a lot more hope now. I did not watch show #2. I liked shows 2 and 3 much more than the first one. I watched the first episode to see what he would do, and was kind of, “meh” about it. I watched the next two because of Biden, King and Johansson, and found myself laughing and enjoying them much more than the first episode. I’m going to try to watch it in the future. I don’t watch a LOT of TV, and I sometimes miss shows I would otherwise enjoy just out of habit. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/136 "2015-09-14T11:32:03Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Ah I see, CBS [does](http://www.cbs.com/all-access/?intcid=CIA03d2c9d) have a streaming service of its own. > > Don’t think it’d be worth paying for just the one show though… > [@Enright3](#): > > Screw [CBS.com](http://CBS.com) and their pay model of streaming content when the other networks push their big hitter shows out to Hulu Plus. > [@Rigamarole](#): > > You can stream it for free right now on the CBS site (which is how I watched it) although someone mentioned that they’re only doing it for the first week apparently. What’s the Straight Dope on this? When you stream it from CBS for free you see almost as many commercials as you would had you watched the live broadcast (I watched all the first four episodes and they clocked in at about 51mins including commercials), so it seems to make perfect sense for CBS to keep free streaming as an option for people who don’t mind waiting until the day after to watch. The idea that they’ll only be making the first week available for free streaming …I wonder if this is being misinterpreted. I’m wondering if the pay version will let you watch all past episodes but that the free version will only include episodes from _within the last week_. This, I could see making some sense. If it actually is true that they will not have _The Late Show_ available for free streaming after this first week, then that’s tremendously stupid. They’re getting advertising dollars, and they’ve got a great hook to pull in more viewership for other CBS shows. Making _The Late Show_ and other tent-pole programming available for free is a great way to pull viewers in and make them aware of other CBS programming and possibly pony up for the pay version of the streaming service. In addition to the outside advertisers that I watched while streaming _The Late Show_, I saw numerous ads for other CBS shows that I had not been familiar with- some of which I may actually watch (Marcia Gay Harden in a lead role in _anything_? Sure, sign me up!) Not that a network wouldn’t actually do something dumb, but I’d be very surprised if tomorrow I am not able to stream tonight’s episode. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/137 "2015-09-14T13:31:46Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Stewart is particularly annoying because he claims to be a Libertarian. Wait, he does? I watched the Daily Show every night, and I’m a pretty big fan of Stewart, I don’t remember him every saying he’s a Libertarian. He might have claimed to be unaffiliated. Wikipedia isn’t an ideal cite, [but here’s what it says](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Stewart#Personal_life): > [@](#): > > In 2000, when he was labeled a Democrat, Stewart generally agreed but described his political affiliation as “more socialist or independent” than Democratic.[136] Stewart has voted for Republicans in the past, the last time being in the 1988 presidential election when he voted for George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis. He described Bush as having “an integrity about him that I respected greatly”.[137] And when I Google for ‘Jon Stewart libertarian’, nothing about him being libertarian seems to come up, other than a blog wondering if he is. > [@WordMan](#): > > I thought the Biden interview was fascinating and well thought-out. Biden presented himself in a way that showcased his authenticity, the quality that would be the difference-maker if he were to seek the presidency. > > Colbert brought gravity to the situation with his approach, and his own experience with tragedy. It not only was “different” for a late night show, so pretty ballsy for a first-week show, it showed a clear look at authentic Stephen Colbert - no blowhard filter this time. > > Colbert’s ability to navigate this type of interview on a late night talk show and show a true picture of himself felt like an interesting start to me. Cool. I thought the Biden interview was really great. Authentic and not manipulative. The interview with the Uber guy was pretty good too, but apparently had to be cut short because of how long Biden’s interview was. [There were apparently protesters there](http://morningafter.gawker.com/behind-the-scenes-of-the-uber-protest-that-got-cut-from-1730015332), but the disruptions were cut out. Colbert asked some tough questions, but let him deflect too much. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/138 "2015-09-14T13:38:55Z")
The Uber guy was being annoyingly obtuse. He said somthing like, “You’ll be able to press a button on the Uber app and get a pizza delivered.” So Colbert asked questions to clarify this, asking something like, “So you’ll see menus from local restaurants and be able to select what you want, right?” But the Uber dude pressed on, “No, the food will be delivered from the Uber vehicle.” Eventually, he described some weird system in which the food would just be waiting in the back of the Uber vehicle for _someone_ to order, say, sweet-and-sour chicken and then be delivered to that person. Seems weird and not at all what I’d want. Basically, he did a shitty job of explaining his own company’s new product offering. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/139 "2015-09-14T13:59:29Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The Uber guy was being annoyingly obtuse. He said somthing like, “You’ll be able to press a button on the Uber app and get a pizza delivered.” So Colbert asked questions to clarify this, asking something like, “So you’ll see menus from local restaurants and be able to select what you want, right?” But the Uber dude pressed on, “No, the food will be delivered from the Uber vehicle.” Eventually, he described some weird system in which the food would just be waiting in the back of the Uber vehicle for _someone_ to order, say, sweet-and-sour chicken and then be delivered to that person. Seems weird and not at all what I’d want. Basically, he did a shitty job of explaining his own company’s new product offering. Well, that’s pretty much what it is. Your selections are limited to what Uber drivers are driving around with that day. [http://ubereats.com/eats/chi/](http://ubereats.com/eats/chi/) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399/140 "2015-09-14T14:03:02Z")
OK, that’s weird. But the thing was that it took a _long_ time for the Uber exec to get around to describing that, despite Colbert’s attempts at drawing him out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/730399.md?page=8)