The Colbert Report In Iraq

I don't often report on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. There's only so many times a gal can blog: tonight Jon Stewart was witty and Stephen Colbert was hilarious, so if Jon Stewart's not feuding with a news anchor or interviewing a president, I'm normally pretty silent about the shows, even though I love them both.

And then Stephen Colbert, both the fictional representation and the real man, went to Iraq as part of a USO tour, and for the first time ever said tour is being broadcast from Iraq. It's pretty damn cool, not just of Colbert but of the US military for letting him do it all. And Colbert does a great job of it. Set in front of a huge audience of military personell instead of his usual blame-america-firsters, Colbert not only brings his usual brand of satirical hilarity (a long segment on "Don't Ask Don't Tell's" Inherent stupidity, talking about GM) but he's clearly thrilling the crap out of his audience. He goes to boot camp and you can hear the audience made up entirely of service men and women see a reflection of their own experiences in Stephen's goofy antics. He discusses the Iraqi weather and you can hear groans of appreciation. And then he shaves his head of perfectly coiffed TV-star hair to a military 'do, and it's like... nothing else.

I love when liberals refuse to allow "the troops" and patriotism to be coopted by uber-conservatives, and more than that I like when people who spend their lives and make their money entertaining us put their butts where the troops are.