Truthiness slinger and defender of all things American - with a wink, Stephen Colbert - a comic "conservative" who fashions his Comedy Central show as a satirical swipe at Fox stalwarts like Bill O'Reilly, was lauded by the US Comedy Arts Festival as their "Person of the Year."
Stephen Colbert - © Janet Mayer / Photorazzi
"What an honor. An honor to receive and an honor for you to give to me," Colbert said during the ceremony in Aspen, Colorado, late yesterday.
Colbert clarified that his television character is not him.
"He's not malicious, he's ill-informed, you know. It's just a product of his own education. And he thinks he's saying and doing the right thing, he's not actually trying to hurt anybody," said Colbert.
Reuters reported that Colbert said he was writing a book, "what is best and what's worst about America," he said. "You know, it's 20 subjects ... all of the important things, the culture war, religion, hygiene, sports."
"I never in a million years imagined that a character who was essentially based on O'Reilly a year and a half ago" would have this honor, Colbert said, and suggested he will get weeks worth of content out of the Aspen accolade.
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