A Report on Colbert on the Colbert Report

I've been waiting for The Colbert Report and tonight I get to find out if it's everything I've been hoping to see. I'm writing this intro during The Daily Show and my report will be LIVE. Provided I don't laugh myself silly.

The Daily Show provided a good lead in, having both Rob Corddry and Ed Helms giving reports. Ya gotta love those guys. And it makes you say to yourself, "Gosh, now I just need some Stephen Colbert." And they did at least five ads for The Colbert Report during Daily Show - good move.

11:27. Nothing left to do now but wait... And wait... And wonder why the Mercedes ad is so, so weak. And wait...

11:28 - Daily Show has a "check in" with The Colbert Report. Fun.

11:30 - The Colbert Report starts. Much more of a FoxNews feel, which deserved some spoofing. I know that his guest tonight will be Stone Phillips - who I had heard was Stephen's inspiration for his "souless delivery." He does a good job giving us "lead stories" such as "Why did the chicken cross the road? To bring the avian flu." Heh-heh.

"On this show your voice will be heard. In the form of my voice."

11:33 - Word of the Day: Truthiness. Makes fun of the "Wordinistas" over at Websters. "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart."

Then Stephen does a riff on head bad/heart good.
"If you THINK about Harriet Miers, of course the selection is absurd."

11:35 - "Like any good newsman I think that if you're not scared, I'm not doing my job."
Introducing "The Threatdown"
5. Avian Flu
4. Basketball - What's a Canadian team doing in our NBA?
3. Babies
2. Hurricane Names
1. James Brady

11:40 - Commercial Break
Thoughts so far: very funny, but you can see that they are trying hard. Part of the charm of The Daily Show is that they very rarely LOOK like they are trying hard, even though I've heard that Jon is quite the perfectionist. We'll have to see how Stephen settles in. I adore him so I have to hope that this will all work out well. I've been hoping to have a Daily Show/Colbert Report double header for quite awhile now.

11:44 - We're back, and Stone Phillips is on. Stephen needs to realize that the "I'm so stuck on myself" riff gets OLD QUICK. Man, he and Stone are ripping into each other.

11:49 - Commercial Break
Ok, the "I'm so stuck on myself" and bitchy attitude need to be turned down.

11:51 - "What's the most important thing that a journalist needs? Humility. What's the second most important thing? Gravitas." He then "rewelcomes" Stone Phillips. They are going to demonstrate that with sufficient gravitas it doesn't matter what you're saying. A gravitas-off.

Heh-heh. That was funny.

11:55 - Commercial Break
Ok, so Stephen KNEW how he was pissing me off. And it was all leading to his humility and gravitas bit. So now I will have to wait until next week to see how he decides to play it from then on out.

11:58 - Announces that Peter Mayhew was sworn in as an American today in Texas. Places a new Chewbacca action figure on his shelf to celebrate it.

All in all, it was fun.

Great. Now I'll be up until midnight every night.
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10:16pm Update: In case you'd like another viewpoint you can check out Spocko's post about how Colbert is "Make You Cry" Funny.