Truthiness

My colbertphilia continues. Dana Stevens has a slightly-too-automatically-cautious-but-still-good review of The Report's first episode.

Last night's show opened with a funny, if slightly overlong, segment called "The Word"—an obvious spoof of Bill O'Reilly's nightly "Talking Points," in which bulleted summaries of Colbertian wisdom appeared down the right-hand side of the screen as the fake anchor enjoined his audience to stop thinking so darn much. "Check gut," read one directive, as Colbert raged against not only the "word police over at Webster's," but against knowledge-gathering in general: "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart." Colbert concluded this segment with a kind of mission statement for the show to come: "Anyone can read the news to you—I promise to feel the news at you."

And.

The interview will be a tough segment to pull off on an ongoing basis; it's neither a sincere one-on-one conversation, as on The Daily Show, nor an Ali G-style stunt in which the interviewee has no idea he's being mocked. Where will Colbert's bookers go to find interesting and willing guests? Celebrities looking to promote a new book, record, or film may fear being made fools of, and even the most oblivious of self-loving blowhards (the real-life versions of the character Colbert himself plays) will get that the show's aim is satirical, and likely refuse to appear. Tonight's guest, Lesley Stahl, will presumably be as game to ridicule her own profession as Phillips was. But once The Colbert Report has cycled through the roster of self-deprecating news anchors, where will it go from there?

Also, check out Phoebe's blog for more Colbert links, followed by some nonsense about hockey--ignore that part.