Doom Report (Week 70: Hello, Goodbye)

Nearly 16 years ago, I wrote a blog post to mark the occasion of The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.  People at the time—and since—didn’t understand the point of the rally, of course: they didn’t “get” it.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the event described as a confused mess; or that people were protesting, but they didn’t know what they were protesting; or that there was no clear message.  Bullshit: there was a crystal clear message.  They even made a T-shirt.  The message was: I disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler.  Now, some have accused this event of not aging well.  I suppose the message may not have aged well, in the sense that I’m pretty sure at least some of the people I disagree with now are, in fact, Hitler.  Or at least Hitler-curious.  And, hey: if we can forget the horrors of World War II, which happened over 80 years ago, we can damn sure forget a one-day rally that happened a mere 16 days ago.

But I still remember it.  At the time, I mostly focussed on Stewart; I only mention Colbert once in that entire post.  And that’s because Colbert was doing something quite different than Stewart ... at the time.  His satire of a rightwing nutjob pundit was biting, and excoriating, but, at least for me, it didn’t hit the same as what Stewart was doing.

Still ... still, I watched every episode of The Colbert Report, just as I watched every episode of The Daily Show.  And, when Colbert shut down the show to go and, of all things, replace David Letterman—who of course had been vying with Jay Leno to succeed Johnny Carson, and some would argue ended up being Carson’s spiritual successor—I was surprised.  The idea of Stephen Colbert doing a talk show, after the funny, often absurdist, bits on The Daily Show, and 9 years as a bloviating caricature on The Colbert Report ... it boggled the mind.  And I don’t actually like talk shows, so I wasn’t too keen on this change.  But I figured I should give it a fair shot.  After all, Letterman had been funny, before he went mainstream (inasmuch as he did, which was at least a little), and there were still funny bits even in the later years.  And Colbert had proven himself: at that point I’d been watching him for 17 years, which was longer than my eldest child had been alive.  I figured I’d watch the first couple of shows and then probably get bored.

Except ... I watched the first several shows, and then a few more, and then some more, and I just ... never stopped.  For 11 years, he did a talk show that was actually entertaining, and relevant, and his monologues were topical, and trenchant, and he was funny.  The bits were funny, the guests were usually funny, and the political satire was excellent.  As it turned out, Colbert was every bit as talented as Stewart had been before him: in the lean years, when Stewart was gone entirely, Colbert was a lifeline; after Stewart came back, first at Apple TV, and then back to The Daily Show once a week, and then reviving the vibes of his Apple show with The Weekly Show—even then, I was still glad to have Colbert: always smart, always funny, never afraid to skewer the corrupt and speak truth to power.

This week, Stephen Colbert aired his final run of shows.  Was he tired of it all, just ready to call it quits?  Not at all.  He just got caught up in some corporate bullshit and Trump flexing his new (at the time) dictatorial muscles.  I won’t repeat all the details here—if you need a refresher, hop back in time to week 26 and reread the conclusion—but the idea that CBS cancelled the late night show with the highest ratings among all late night shows for purely “financial reasons” is so ludicrous that we needn’t give it any more credence than that.

The entire week of shows was really very good, and you should watch them all.  For particular highlights, I’ll call out the extended version of Stephen himself being administered the Colbert Questionert (I have a fondness for the Questionert; I even administered it to myself once), and his final musical number, which not only brings back original bandleader Jon Batiste, but also throws in Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney, which ain’t too shoddy, if you ask me.  But you should watch them all: he’s lambasting the current regime right up to the bitter end.

A bunch of touching tributes to the loss, from Robert Reich, from Jimmy Kimmel, from Adam Conover, and from Adam Kinzinger (see below for that one).

But I brought up the Rally to Restore Sanity because it’s emblematic of how little most of the media has been able to understand what Colbert (and Stewart, and Kimmel, and Meyers, and Oliver, and a host of others) do.  It’s usually referred to as “fake news”—The Daily Show even refers to itself that way—but this is completely inaccurate.  I watched TDS before Stewart came along, and what Craig Kilborn was doing was in fact fake news: they were absurdist stories, done in the style of news, about things that had never happened.  The “news” was completely fake.  But, when Stewart came in, he established a new tradition: the stories they reported on were entirely real, and the fact they could make us laugh while doing so didn’t make it any less true.  There is no artificiality; only humor.  “Funny” and “fake” are not the same thing at all.  And, while I give Stewart credit for starting it, there can be no doubt that Colbert became a master at the craft, and his loss will be felt for a while.

Until he finds something new to latch on to.  Will it be Monroe, Michigan public access?  Probably not.  But I’m eagerly anticipating whatever comes next.

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Other things you need to know this week:

• The big news this week, of course, is Trump’s multi-billion dollar slush fund for ... well, whoever the fuck he wants.  Devin Stone covers it, in only the second Legal Eagle video I’ve ever seen with no ads (the first was the Alex Pretti video, which I covered back in week 53).  It covers, in a concise but impassioned manner, the unlimited nature of the fund (turns out the $1.776 billion number is just a smokescreen), and also touches on the IRS “immunity” deal written into it for Trump.  And his businesses.  And his children.  Forever.  Just stunning.  More coverage on this from Adam Kinzinger and Strict Scrutiny.

• Jon Stewart once again (see also last week) demonstrates electability despite protestations to the contrary by asking overly competent questions on chips, rare earths, etc in this week’s Weekly Show.  Another talent he shares with Colbert.

• Adam Kinzinger had quite possibly his best day in review ever on Friday: he talks about Tulsi Gabbard’s “resignation,” the Trump regime’s attempt to declare that half our voting machines are “invalid,” Marjorie Taylor Greene’s warning that Trump may try to use the Iran war as a pretext to cancel elections (duh), and the aforementioned fairly touching tribute to Colbert.  A total banger this time.

• More Perfect Union is still at it, exposing the scams of corporations and billionaires.  It’s the latter this time around, as they talk about the “illegal immigrant voting” scam and how it helps billionaires stay in power.

• The main Some More News show this week was about all the war stuff Trump is doing, including the incredible information that both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio claim they hate communists because their families were persecuted the Cuban government ... and yet both were actually persecuted by Castro’s predecessor: a puppet dictator installed by the US.  Every time you assume you can’t be surprised by more hypocrisy, you find that you’ve been mistaken.

• Hey, remember back in week 67 when I said that I was starting to think Trump might be gay?  Secretly gay, granted—deeply, deeply closeted gay—but, still: gay.  Well, Ronnie Chieng agrees with me!  And also other good stuff from one of this week’s Daily Show episodes.

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I usually try to end with a note of hope.  Although I note that I didn’t bother doing so the week Colbert got cancelled—I ended with the story of the cancellation, which I called a note of defeat.  This week also feels like that, a little.  Actually, fuck that: more than a little.  But I choose to believe that, in the end, good will triumph over evil, democracy will triumph over autocracy, and American values will triumph over racism and corruption, even if our founding fathers were pretty fucking racist, and maybe even a little bit corrupt.  But the principles they espoused are still solid, and inspiring, and worth fighting for.

Earlier tonight I had to explain to my 14-year-old (my youngest child) why I wouldn’t be watching Colbert any more, and how Kimmel or John Oliver (or both) could be next, and even The Daily Show’s continuance is not a sure thing.  I had to explain how Trump, like all aspiring autocrats, had been co-opting the media, and the universities, and the big law firms.  And some had gone along, and some were fighting.  And my child said to me, “Well, at least the guys you watch are quitting.  ‘Cause that’s better than staying and going along with whatever Trump wants them to do.”  And, you know what? they’re right.  Quitting is better.  Quitting with your integrity beats rolling over any day, every day, all day long.  I’m going to miss Stephen Colbert, for sure, but the fact that he’s walking out with his head held high and his principles intact, that means something.

And that’s what I’m holding on to right now.