May 6, 2011

2011) - Bill James

Colbert Report Episode Guide 150px EPISODE NUMBER: 7060 (May 5, 2011)
GUESTS: Bill James
SEGMENTS: Stephen Confesses to a Distracted Media, ThreatDown, Inaugural Republican Presidential Debate & Donald Trump’s Wisdom
VIDEOS: Thursday, May 5, 2011

I’m always amused by the things Stephen says right at the top of the show that give some clue to the audience interaction before the taping. Today’s topic seemed to be New Zealand and The Hobbit, which makes me think that someone asked if Stephen would want to be in the movie. Or if he’d give a hobbit a massage. One of those things. Anyway, Stephen’s frustration with how the assassination of Bin Laden is dominating the news is understandable, especially since the story of the raid keeps breaking in bits and pieces. But there are definite advantages to having one big story dominate the news. Got something bad/embarrassing/possibly career-ending that you need to get out? Wait until a big news story breaks, and no one will ever know. Stephen’s dual confessions that he’s a “tweaker freak” and that he stole a Vermeer will never hit the headlines.

I love a good ThreatDown, because I need to know exactly what I should be afraid of when I leave the house everyday. So today I’m afraid of Dennis Kucinich with heat vision, “that smokin’ hot lady on American Idol,” and the fact that Glee has managed to do some fabulous product placement without anyone noticing. I kind of lost it when Stephen said every episode made him “want to wrap [his] lips around a tall cool one.” (Repeat after me: family friendly, family friendly…) The shout-out to Neil Patrick Harris at the end was so very cool. And that makes me ask, when is NPH going to appear on the show? Because that must happen someday.

Did anyone else not realize there was a presidential debate last night? It got so little press beforehand that I don’t think I even knew it was happening until yesterday, and it looks like a lot of potential candidates weren’t interested, either. Thank goodness there were a few “actual upright breathing bipeds” who thought it worth their time to show up, otherwise we’d start to think that no one was interested in the job. I had to laugh when Stephen pointed out that one of the candidates who did show up was someone whose name escaped him, even though it was someone who’d been on his show… twice. I didn’t remember him, either, and I think that says everything about his chances for success. I’m glad Stephen keeps hammering away at the notion that Donald Trump as a candidate is a really bad idea. Comparing same-sex marriage to golf equipment is bizarre. Comparing “President Trump” to licking postage stamps actually makes more sense to me: they both leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Bill James seemed nervous during the interview, but still had some interesting things to say about our fascination with violent crime. The fact that the public seems to lose interest in a sensational crime once we know what happened hadn’t occurred to me before, but sounds pretty accurate. The cases that continue to fascinate are the unsolved ones. The idea of crime collectibles is a creepy concept, although the phrase “Honus Wagner card of murder” amused me greatly. (For all you out-of-towners, a Honus Wagner baseball card is considered the Holy Grail of sports collectibles.)