The Passion of the Colbert

Ann Althouse pointed to this interview with Stephen Colbert, but only after she has a pretty interesting discussion with herself about comedy and the way it handles religion.

It's more difficult to be comical around a subject you respect, and working through a difficulty makes what you do more interesting. By contrast, when George Carlin jokes about religion, his comedy on the subject feels cheap and thin, because it's just flat-out obvious that he hates religion. I'd much rather listen to Colbert on the subject, and not just because I'm not entertained by hate. Colbert has to struggle with a problem, and he chooses to make comedy out of a subject that is complicated for him. I love that.

Of course, there's a distinct difference: Colbert is playing a character whereas Carlin always played himself.  Ann goes to great lengths to point out Colbert's personal statements on his faith in interviews before, and she's right, it does provide an interesting insight into Stephen Colbert as a person, but it doesn't somehow make his comedy more enlightened.  Carlin's comedy plays thin now because he's no longer funny, but back in the day, he was lambasting sacred cows.  He was the first of the Post-PC comedians, he just happened to do it in a Pre-PC world.

I don't disagree with Ann, but I think she's, perhaps, making too fine a point.

Comments

[Ty]

Slightly off topic...I saw an rerun of Law and Order:CI the other day and Steven Colbert was in it! So weird to see him act like a (crazy) normal person...without his "Anchorman Dialect." And he was totally believable...guess he has some range...