Maybe it was my mood. Maybe it was my expectations. Maybe it was because I had watched almost two hours' worth of DVR'd "Colbert Report" episodes earlier. Or maybe I was on crack. Maybe it's a classic case of
Rashomon Syndrome.
But, with apologies to elishastephens and TrueBlueMajority, I just didn't think Stephen Colbert did all that great a job at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night. I'd rate it as "okay" to "pretty good, but not great."
And, given that I think Colbert is possibly the funniest man on TV, "pretty good" was a disappointment.
I tuned into the SPAN at about 10:25 last night, and caught the last few minutes of The Decider's schtick. I don't know who wrote his routine, or who hired the look-alike comic who was standing there with him, but that person will probably get a promotion and a Medal of Freedom (assuming they're not giving those ONLY to people who've failed miserably). Bush killed the admittedly home crowd - meaning, his comic doppelganger killed, and Bush managed to not get in the way, a borderline retarded Abbott to his comic partner's Costello.
(Or maybe Martin and Lewis would be a better analogy. Burns and Schreiber? Burns and Allen? Feel free to chime in here.)
Most importantly, by doing a - yes, I hate to admit it - pretty funny routine, one that was self-deprecating to an unexpected degree, then wrapping up with a "god bless the troops, god bless America" ending, Bush did a pretty good job of diffusing anything Colbert would throw at him.
And, I think Colbert was thrown off his game a bit. A lot, actually. The fact that some of his material sailed over the heads of many in the crowd, and was met with the proverbial crickets' chirping, seemed to rattle him slightly at times, even causing him to flub one of his jokes.
That's not to say that he didn't have his moments; he did. (I thought the glacier joke was a moment that was both laugh-out-loud funny and stinging - I think global warming is finally sinking in with the general populace, which helps such a joke resonate.) And the "audition tape" film was pretty funny at times, though it was a bit too long. (And frankly, Bill Maher did a similar joke on the last "Real Time" which was shorter and funnier - though there's no way his routine would have been done with Bush in the same room.)
But really, as I was watching Stephen Colbert last night, I felt that he was pulling his punches, and ended up with a routine that was no better than a Jay Leno monologue, only - and I can't believe I'm saying this, since I'm no Leno fan - not as funny. I think even a hometeam player like Dennis Miller would have made jokes that referenced the NSA wiretaps or Scalia's obscene gestures. Those Bush Regime embarrassments are out there in the open, low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked.
Colbert's jokes didn't grab that fruit with gusto, chew it up, and spit it at the Embarrassment-in-Chief, the way I expected. They were polite nibbles. Mildly biting, but in the end too good natured to be called a "home run."
I'd go with "frozen rope single," or maybe "modest ground-rule double." The kind that gently bounces into the stands, and leaves the baserunner stranded at third instead of barrelling home.