Bozell Column: Colberts Egotism Isnt Fake | NewsBusters.org

Late-night comedians historically have relished the opportunity to poke fun at politicians. Sometimes they savage them. In the Obama era, they haven’t been so enthusiastic about any of it. A recent study of political jokes on three late-night shows (Letterman, Leno, and Jimmy Fallon) by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that Barack Obama’s joke count is “substantially lower than any other president.”

Some of the Obama jokes are actually bipartisan slams. Jimmy Fallon joked that “Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are more mature than President Obama and John Boehner.” This is the classic comedian’s pose, and the safe one, that all the politicians are ridiculous, squabbling poseurs. Still, it’s every bit as much pandering to the public as the politicians are.

But some self-aggrandizing comedians are constantly stepping off the sidelines and attempting to participate in, not just ridicule, political campaigns. At least once a year, Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert professes to get serious about politics. He portrays himself as a pompous Bill O’Reilly clone.  The pomposity is not just an act. He’s engaged in a series of egotistical stunts to promote his own Nielsen ratings. Now he’s thrown his hat into the Republican primary ring to be elected “President of South Carolina.”

This is nothing new. In 1928, Will Rogers ran as the “bunkless candidate” of the Anti-Bunk Party. His only campaign promise was that, if elected, he would resign. When his name was seriously considered by voters, he wrote, “Now when that is done as a joke it is alright. But
when it’s done seriously, it’s just pathetic.”

Stephen Colbert is just pathetic.

Of course, Colbert isn’t seriously running for president, any more than he was seriously testifying on migrant workers in that fiasco in front of the House Judiciary Committee in 2010. What, then, gives him the right to pontificate as if he were demanding that level of respect?

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