They rarely saw each other away from the set, but on camera the two men played off each other like the best comic duos. Colbert accentuated his earnestness with new and distinctive mannerisms - the tilt of the head, the pregnant pause, the slow, measured pacing towards the camera. Though each report was tightly scripted, a Q-and-A segment following Colbert’s opening allowed him to pursue a private goal, that of getting Stewart to break up on camera. “I knew the piece was good if he couldn’t look at me when we were at the desk together,” Colbert said.
Stewart and Colbert were ideal alter egos. “Jon deconstructs the news,” Colbert said. “He’s ironic and detached, while I falsely construct the news, and I’m ironically attached.” Other Daily Show correspondents, however, found Stewart and Colbert too attached to each other. “Jon and Stephen were always very friendly and chummy with each other,” said Wiltfong. “It always seemed like a world we couldn’t get into. . . . Jon just doesn’t let many people in, and Stephen was one of the few.”
Colbert, however, remained above the jealousy and even the celebrity of his fame. As America careened towards war in Iraq, he was too busy studying the media to worry about private feuds. And when the war came, bringing with it spoon-fed news from embedded reporters, Stewart and Colbert became anchors of ironic protest. “Senior Military Correspondent” Stephen Colbert proved Saddam Hussein was still alive by running a clip of Groucho Marx in the 1933 film, Duck Soup . He mocked the futile search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by claiming inspectors had found “perfume, Drano, Prell (for moderate to oily hair), and salsa - Tostitos mild, I believe.” And when Bush officials finally testified that they had found no WMD in Iraq, Colbert called the announcement “the non-smoking gun we’ve been looking for.”
Come another election year – “Indecision 2004” – Colbert was back in full political mode. His evolution from sketch comic to caricatured correspondent was complete. His reports from the field were funnier, drier, more distinctive than those of Steve Carell, Samantha Bee, or Ed Helms. Colbert was clearly second-in-command at The Daily Show, ” dwarfed only by his co-anchor. The cacophony of the campaign made humor a daily requirement, thus turning 2004 into “The Year of Jon Stewart.” Suddenly, Stewart was everywhere - on magazine covers, 60 Minutes, even Crossfire, where his blistering attack became an Internet sensation. Colbert stayed in Stewart’s shadow, filing report after report - his future waiting in the wings.
With America mired in a controversial war, cable news became a verbal mosh pit. Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and others were openly insulting guests and spewing false facts, causing the ghost of Edward R. Murrow to spin in his grave. Who would take these high priests and priestesses of punditry down a notch?
Periodically throughout 2004, The Daily Show previewed a new program, The Colbert Report . The clips showed a strident Colbert shouting, sneering, and not just adjusting his glasses, but ripping them from his face. In his nastiest voice, Colbert announced, “Tonight, I sit down with top newsmakers and tell them to SHUT THE HELL UP!” Colbert denounced guests as being an “Idiot!” or a “Jackass!” and he played off O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone” by suggesting a “No Fact Zone.” In a supposed interview with the Dalai Lama, Colbert asked, “What the heck do you know about world peace, baldy? SHUT UPPPPP!” More Colbert Report segments aired, but Stewart called them “previews of an exciting new Daily Show spin-off that’s already been canceled.”
America, however, needed The Colbert Report . The election had hardened the divide between the so-called red states and blue states, and the partisan bickering was left to caricature itself. “Shut up” became not just a
Stewart and Colbert were ideal alter egos. “Jon deconstructs the news,” Colbert said. “He’s ironic and detached, while I falsely construct the news, and I’m ironically attached.” Other Daily Show correspondents, however, found Stewart and Colbert too attached to each other. “Jon and Stephen were always very friendly and chummy with each other,” said Wiltfong. “It always seemed like a world we couldn’t get into. . . . Jon just doesn’t let many people in, and Stephen was one of the few.”
Colbert, however, remained above the jealousy and even the celebrity of his fame. As America careened towards war in Iraq, he was too busy studying the media to worry about private feuds. And when the war came, bringing with it spoon-fed news from embedded reporters, Stewart and Colbert became anchors of ironic protest. “Senior Military Correspondent” Stephen Colbert proved Saddam Hussein was still alive by running a clip of Groucho Marx in the 1933 film, Duck Soup . He mocked the futile search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by claiming inspectors had found “perfume, Drano, Prell (for moderate to oily hair), and salsa - Tostitos mild, I believe.” And when Bush officials finally testified that they had found no WMD in Iraq, Colbert called the announcement “the non-smoking gun we’ve been looking for.”
Come another election year – “Indecision 2004” – Colbert was back in full political mode. His evolution from sketch comic to caricatured correspondent was complete. His reports from the field were funnier, drier, more distinctive than those of Steve Carell, Samantha Bee, or Ed Helms. Colbert was clearly second-in-command at The Daily Show, ” dwarfed only by his co-anchor. The cacophony of the campaign made humor a daily requirement, thus turning 2004 into “The Year of Jon Stewart.” Suddenly, Stewart was everywhere - on magazine covers, 60 Minutes, even Crossfire, where his blistering attack became an Internet sensation. Colbert stayed in Stewart’s shadow, filing report after report - his future waiting in the wings.
With America mired in a controversial war, cable news became a verbal mosh pit. Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and others were openly insulting guests and spewing false facts, causing the ghost of Edward R. Murrow to spin in his grave. Who would take these high priests and priestesses of punditry down a notch?
Periodically throughout 2004, The Daily Show previewed a new program, The Colbert Report . The clips showed a strident Colbert shouting, sneering, and not just adjusting his glasses, but ripping them from his face. In his nastiest voice, Colbert announced, “Tonight, I sit down with top newsmakers and tell them to SHUT THE HELL UP!” Colbert denounced guests as being an “Idiot!” or a “Jackass!” and he played off O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone” by suggesting a “No Fact Zone.” In a supposed interview with the Dalai Lama, Colbert asked, “What the heck do you know about world peace, baldy? SHUT UPPPPP!” More Colbert Report segments aired, but Stewart called them “previews of an exciting new Daily Show spin-off that’s already been canceled.”
America, however, needed The Colbert Report . The election had hardened the divide between the so-called red states and blue states, and the partisan bickering was left to caricature itself. “Shut up” became not just a
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