Through the Looking Glass: In Colbert we trust
By Sarah Delia, staff writer
Posted on April 6, 2006

He runs around his own stage, lights flashing his name in every direction, clasping his hands together while receiving pretentious applause when a guest comes on his show. He claims that bears are “godless killing machines,” that sleep is “un-American” because by logic, you should be using that time to eat (the true American way) and has now stepped out of long-time friend Jon Stewart’s shadow. He has arrived and his name is Stephen Colbert. A few months ago you may have recognized his name as the guy that once reported for “The Daily Show” and now comes on after Stewart, but by now, unless you’re living under a rock or have a healthy sleeping schedule — which I don’t — you have learned to love, live and learn from “The Colbert Report,” correctly pronounced “The Col-bear Ra-poor.”

A mockingly sweet breath of fresh satirical air, Colbert is an escape from the violence, sexual harassment cases and political hatred, which circulates in current media. Flip on the scare tactic conservative news station FOX News and prepare for your heart rate to rise from a code yellow to purple with in a matter of seconds, Sean Hannity to explain why you’re un-American, and an increase in jumpiness as you’re door bell rings — no it’s not Bill O’Reilly reenacting McCarthyism, coming to send you to the land of the unpatriotic, it’s just the mail man, but by now you’re so on edge — it doesn’t really matter.

Sarcastically paralleled to O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Colbert features a segment called “The Word,” the equivalent to entering the ironically titled “No-Spin Zone” on O’Reilly’s show. “The Word” pokes fun at current events, senators, congressmen and anything that appears to be taking itself a little too seriously; from music elitists to the politically misguided, Colbert is a reigning champion of the common man, “… who are the heroes? The people who watch this show … You’re not the elites, you’re not the country club crowd. I know for a fact that my country club would never let you in.” And he’s right — people of today are feeling more stressed and defensive as our lives are defined by codes of color. We, as college students and members of the next generations, look to our choices of role models: Corporate America, plagued by scary-looking old men that claim to be the common man as they drive to work in their not-so-environmentally conscious Hummers, or, easygoing, approachable people like Colbert who reassures us that “your voice will be heard — in the form of my voice.”

I like my news the way I like my cream cheese on a bagel — light, fluffy and used in moderation. Screaming at the cream cheese does not make it anymore tasty, whiter or whatever you would expect of cream cheese — the only thing you’ll get in return is a blank apathetic stare. The difference of yelling at a viewer is that while a talk show host can yell at you through the TV screen, unlike cream cheese, you have the power to turn off the show, bash your radio as Rush Limbaugh begins his daily preach, and turn on something that is a pause in a media crazed world — “The Colbert Report.”

Don’t worry about me, America; although I rely on the likes of the talk show “The Colbert Report,” I’m still an informed intellectual. I know there’s a war going on, people are constantly angry about it, and that Democrats and Republicans are still not getting along — I know all that and much more with about being yelled at and belittled by angry men on the other side of my television. But most importantly, I’ve learned from Colbert that “just because something’s not true … doesn’t mean I can’t say it,” a concept I’m sure all extremists would agree with.

Sarah Delia is a freshmen English and art history major who also believes that “all God’s creatures have a soul … except bears.”