Monday, January 14, 2008

Stephen Colbert's portrait

Stephen Colbert is running a mini documentary on the Colbert Report about how he's trying to give the Smithsonian Museum his portrait (of him standing next to a portrait of him standing next to his portrait).
It's pretty funny, as is a lot of his stuff --- and most of the two segments so far have been self ridicule on his part --- until they got to the part about the Smithsonian having accepted (bought?) the laptop used by the character Carrie Bradshaw on Sex And The City. And the curator or director attempting to justify why they have this laptop.....

And it struck me how much more influence on the country The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have (not least because they are on all cable systems, whereas Sex And The City was on a pay-for channel; plus, they draw large audiences four nights a week, most weeks a year; and large numbers of young americans say that they get almost all their television news from the two of them).
And I felt sympathetic to Colbert: enough to consider writing a letter to the Smithsonian suggesting that they ought really to accept the portrait. Perhaps just to leave in a warehouse for now, but in a few years time not accepting it might look like a rather dubious decision!

Yours, for the Report,
N.

2 comments:

Bobkat said...

We don't get that show here in the UK but it sounds interesting. We did get Sex and the City though which was a huge hit here!

I think they should take the portrait, like you said, they might regret it!

kenju said...

You're right!