Last night's "The Report" with Stephen Colbert was a great episode, as Colbert poked a big stick at MSNBC's nuttiness over the Paris Hilton coverage, and especially anchor Contessa Brewer's lathering over the situation.
Colbert's show trumps many legitimate news shows for quality of guests and his satirical savvy to get to the core of the real story through his tongue-in-cheek humor.
Colbert's guests include politicians and pundits from opposite sides of the liberal/conservative aisles, stars, scientists, writers, academics, musicians - it's an eclectic mixture every night. He pioneered the green screen challenges, that even inspired a visit from George Lucas on Colbert's Star Wars challenge.
Colbert even has two namesakes, a baby bald eagle named Stephen Jr. and a leatherback turtle called Stephanie Colburtle. Captain America bequeathed his shield to Colbert upon his death, Colbert the only worthy successor. Hungary almost had a bridge named after him from a deluge of fans crashing their contest site.
Recently Colbert interviewed Dr. Michael Gershon, whose book, entitled The Second Brain, deals with that other thinking, self-regulating mass of neurons that dwells in your gut. Colbert quips, "Your gut is the pope of your torso--it's infallible."
Last night Colbert defended the overachieving Contessa, claiming she was the closest thing we Americans had to royalty, and criticized MSNBC guest Tommy Chong for aggravating our royal anchor on live feed during an interview.
What producer at MSNBC thought Tommy Chong would play serious pundit ball with Contessa Brewer over Paris Hilton?
MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer became agitated as Chong questioned her line of questions, retorting "who did she murder?" and asking a growing more flustered by the second Brewer if she had embezzled any money. Brewer slightly loses her cool towards the end of the ill-conceived segment (for MSNBC).
Comedian Tommy Chong took note of the stupidity being covered like a real news story on MSNBC when he suggested to Brewer that the Republicans had something to do with Hilton's jail sentence.
"Have you smoked anything today, just curious," she asked Chong, seriously.
Now, that fat nugget of video gold was prime plucking for the agile-minded Stephen Colbert, who must have channeled Edward R. Murrow to save the day for serious journalists.
Colbert summoned Chong to his studio via live feed, and the interview was hilarious. They need to have Chong check in with Stephen on a regular basis. I forgot how funny the guy was.
Chong was roasted by Colbert about upsetting the royal Contessa, and asked Chong at one point, "are you high?" to which Chong retorts, "of course."
It was all great television. Have a look: contessa-and-chong
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