I was never a big fan of Colbert. My wife was, tho, so I had plenty of opportunity. Basically I never cared for his persona on the Report. I realize many others loved it. Some of the bits were amusing, and some of the interviews highly so.
I only saw the first ep of the Late Show, and am not terribly interested in seeing any more, tho I have them on DVR. What surprised me was how much his Late Show persona resembled his Report persona. I know he joked that he remains a narcissist, but the pictures of him on the dome, the mannerisms such as flicking back his hair, the repeated chanting of his name - all added up to essentially a watered down Report. And what is the interest in that?
I was really hoping the persona he projected on this show would be more different than his fictional persona. I can imagine it takes some time to get good at interviewing, but based on my admittedly teeny sample, I preferred his interviews when he played the character on the Report.
Is it possible that he is more of a one-trick pony than folk anticipated?
It’s possible. And I have not been at all impressed by this week’s shows.
Which adds up to a big, so what? The Colbert Report was one of the vanishingly few shows that worked from the get-go. (Although I’ve never tried to check them out to see if that’s only a trick of memory.) All the other late night shows needed time, a year or more, to hit their stride.
We’re going to go through this again in a few weeks when Trever Noah takes over The Daily Show. People will say that his first week is flat and unfunny and not working, forgetting that it took Jon Stewart, who started in early 1999, until the 2000 election season to become memorable. He had to almost completely revamp the show to make it his.
It’s simply ridiculously unfair to judge a talk show by its first week. We all do so anyway, but sometimes we have to eat our words a year or two later. (As I had to with Colbert.) I refuse to make a call on him until after the next election, just as I refuse to do so for Noah. I gently suggest that you do the same.
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.
Wow. Even though it actually lasts a few seconds maximum? For something so brief and inane to be utterly unbearable to you, you must have an extremely fragile psyche. How do you manage to watch… anything whatsoever? Commercials, for example, are much, much more annoying, and they’re being blasted at you constantly.
I personally found the chanting less palatable than commercials, and diligently FFWDed through both. It lasted much longer than a few seconds; I’d say upwards of a full minute or more. Speaking about the The Colbert Report here.
I really liked the Colbert Report. I like Colbert. I would have to fast-forward through the inane chanting, though. I can’t articulate how much I hated it, or why. I’m angry even now just thinking about it.
I bet that will die down, as audiences realize this isn’t Colbert Report: the Sequel.
Personally, I hate how nearly every late-night show has developed this culture where after each monologue joke, the audience applauds. I blame Leno for the introduction of that host-insecurity-assuaging-behavior, although I have no science to back it up. Just my preconceived bias.
Anyway, the point is, people chant “Stephen!” because they’ve learned over the years it’s expected. It will be unlearned as people realize that’s no longer part of the schtick.
I think the problem–if there is one–isn’t with Colbert. The problem is that it’s a late-night talk show. Late-night talk shows by nature are just stupid.
I think this nails it. Daily Shows and Colbert Report were quite different from the Late Night Talk Shows. I got tired of the Colbert Report after a time and went from a daily viewer to an occasional viewer but I would say from 2000 til the end Daily Show was much watch TV for me. When I was young and Letterman was the crazy guy after Carson I enjoyed it. But I never loved Carson and hate Leno and his insipid crap. Letterman was never as good once he toned down but he was better than the others. I think Colbert will probably be in the category.
I think most of this is spot-on, though I completely disagree with your earlier comment about the Biden interview which most reviews rated very positive, as did I in my comment posted here right after it ended.
I also think you’re overlooking the fact that Colbert took this gig on the condition that he have complete creative freedom, at least as complete as is realistically possible in a big-money commercially sponsored endeavor. Within those constraints I think he’s striving to pull this out of the dying traditional Carson-Leno late-show genre and create something quite new and different. Whether he’ll succeed or not is another question.
People have really strong opinions about late night shows…
I think it should take a while before the show finds it’s rhythm. This is the first time Colbert is playing himself in front of a live audience and he needs more than one show to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. I think as time goes by people will like the real Colbert because he can do something the fake Colbert could not - he can get personal.
The difference between the Daily Show and the other talk shows was that Jon Stewart had a personal point of view that he was not afraid of sharing with the audience. John Oliver and Larry Wilmore also followed in his foot steps. Their best segments are usually a result of them taking a uniquely personal and passionate stance on a subject.
Here is John Oliver’s most popular video on his Youtube channel about FIFA.
Do we know what Conan’s favorite sport is? Do we know which political issue Letterman cares most strongly about? Do we know what personal traits Jimmy Fallon most admires in someone?
Colbert could not get personal playing a fake character. Now that he can be himself, I would expect him to follow the example set by Jon Stewart. For better or worse, he will get personal on the show. With the Biden interview, we could see what Colbert admires about the guy and why.
I expect this will alienate a lot of viewers who do not want to see someone on TV sharing a point of view they do not support. These people can go watch Fallon play beer pong with Danny Devito. I will continue to watch because I know the real Colbert is awesome and I want to see what he really cares about.
Yeah, Colbert certainly has more latitude with being himself. I think he’s trying to find the balance which can be a little jarring to the regular Report watcher. He simply couldn’t do the Biden interview as the Report character. So if this is the direction of the show I’m all for it. For some it slowed the show down since they are used to his mocking of the Fox Brand with his quit wit, but it doesn’t have to be all shits and giggles.
For me, the interview was really riveting because any pretense as to why Biden is struggling with his decision to run was stripped away. Colbert allowed for Joe to talk it out, and in doing so we learned a lot about Joe as a human being not just a character.
This is the problem for me. I appreciate the stamp that Colbert wants to put on the show, but his intellect and boundless improvisational energy don’t fit the late night formula. His jokes in the opening monologue can be wickedly funny, but they don’t go over as well because he isn’t an opening monologue kind of guy. I was expecting a more radical redesign of the format, but that’s not what we’re getting.
And I’m put off by the way he dominates interviews, something I thought he’d ease up on with this show. I was glad to see Scarlet Johannson tell him to stop interrupting and let her answer. The Biden interview was embarrassing. There’s good reason to sympathize with him, but fishing for sympathy was unseemly. The only interview of the first week I liked was Amy Schumer, I think because she’s a truly funny comedian who could match his wit.
Agreed. The interview with Biden was heartfelt, and Biden came across as the nice guy that he is. I know people who know Biden on a personal level, who say that his public persona is nearly identical to his private one.
Wife and I both found the Biden interview a snooze. Switched it off and cancelled the auto-record.
And add me to the roster of fragile psyches who got irritated by the chanting. I never timed it, but I’d bet it generally took at least 30 seconds after the intro, between the cheering and chanting, before he ever really said anything. Certainly not the biggest thing in the world, but I didn’t HAVE to watch something that routinely irritated me right off the bat, so I CHOSE not to.