An audio version of the roast of President George W. Bush by Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Central cable channel rose to the rank of No. 1 album at Apple’s iTunes store Saturday, three weeks from the night of the White House correspondents’ dinner at which it was delivered.
This month, C-Span ordered more than 40 versions of the speech removed from the popular video-sharing sites YouTube.com and iFilm. C-Span said it had ordered the clips removed to assert its copyright on recordings of the performance, and shortly thereafter it allowed Google Video to stream it free of charge. In the two weeks since, it has been at or near the top of Google’s list of most popular videos. Over the weekend, it was still No. 4 there.
Rock on!
ZZzzzzzz… wake me up when he says something funny.
Better yet, just goto http://www.stevebridges.com and watch something worth laughing at.
Glad to see a perceptive chunk of the public is responding with clickthroughs and purchases. The marketplace rules! As opposed to the usual six people who can’t deal with humor about the emperor.
I guess that includes the emperor, too.
The expression on Boy George’s face: Priceless!
Colbert is funny but, this was his weakest performance.
Hans,
Bridges skit was basically, “Isn’t it funny how dumb Bush is?” Then Colberts skit was “No, it isnt funny how dumb you are.” It wasn’t intended to be Laugh out loud funny. It was intended to be sardonic.
Laugh out loud funny was a week later when Drudge tried pointing out that all of fox news prime time line up had barely a half million more viewers than Daily Show and Colbert.
Now that was funny.
Ahhhem, Backwash.
Why is this getting any play? Sorry but the bit just wasn’t funny in the first place.
I mean I hate the Duh too, but Colbert’s bit just sucked.
It was number one all time on youtube too before they got it yanked.
Thank you Hans and while we’re at it lets get some Orin Hatch CDs!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/102-9945245-8908952?url=index%3Dmusic&search-type=quick-search&field-keywords=orin+hatch&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go
Something worth listening at!
The problem is, he wasn’t TRYING to say something funny. This administration is not funny. The speech wasn’t much of a satire piece. Just the truth. No need to exagerate it to make a point. Scary…
I’m just not sure what the fuss is about that segment. Bush seemed to take it in good humour (even laughing in places), his own speech not long before (with a Bush impersonator beside him) poked fun at a lot of the same things.
Bush knows his rep and, scarily enough, he’s not stupid. He’s self aware – he just doesn’t care what people think.
Colbert was great on The Daily Show, but his TV show just stretches the joke for too long. This speech was the best thing he’s done in a while. It took balls for him to do it, but it also took balls for them to put him up there – I mean they knew his routine!
Fuss over nothing.
I fully agree with Gregory #10. It takes big balls to hold a roast where you know you’re going to get poked fun at by both the Tonight Show’s Bush impersonator and Colbert.
IMO Colbert is usually decent on the Comedy Channel but all his jokes were tired reruns of bits I’ve seen him do on The Daily Show. Delivery was more catatonic than usual and he didn’t even pick his funniest bits! Looked like he was trying to act too dignified in front of the press corp.
Folks – this annual event is between the current President and the press corp is *meant* to have comedy and irony… it eases the tension between all playing the political game…
Invited speakers very often roast the president. The president quite often pokes fun at themselves.
Take a closer look at the guest list from this year and years past. It is not unusual to find invitees that would be considered mortal enemies.
But it is D.C. and only the game of politics. The press and the politicos don’t get so wound up as those of us they manipulate everyday…
Seems like old news to me.
Aren’t there any other “I hate (President) Bush” artiles that could be posted?
This bit might have been number one before it was yanked, but it was because of curious people, not because it was actually worth watching or funny. And yes #9, it was supposed to be funny. Thats what the even is all about, just as #12 stated. #5, You can drag other political issues into it and argue all you want. Politics have been argued over since they were invented. Neither yours nor my viewpoint will awaken the opposition. Fact is, it was supposed to be funny and it wasn’t, regardless if the material was true or not. Colbert better stash some of his good income while he still has a job, because a year from now you won’t even remember him.
While I’m appalled at the rationales offered up in supplication to the thug in the White House — especially when it’s obvious even that “average” citizen thinks he sucks — attempts to paint over the situation like H Friedman’s are barely worth a chuckle.
Or maybe he doesn’t know how to access iTunes. Too dangerous a place to visit. I checked this morning. Colbert’s piece is still #1 audiobook album.
Oh, and #13, just watch the day’s news. Any day. Only the operative word isn’t hate. For the average American, the operative emotion obviously is contempt.
Amazing how you can watch it for free from c-span.org and everybody pays apple for it. Dumbest purchases ever.