Colbert brings real wit to mock punditry

October 19, 2005|Globe Staff

Comedy Central continues to make its name as the watchdog to the straight news. With Jon Stewart's ''The Daily Show," David Spade's ''The Showbiz Show," and now ''The Colbert Report," the network is providing viewers with a happy little cynicism hut where you can get takeout mockery and a side of gall.

''The Colbert Report" joined Comedy Central's lineup on Monday at 11:30 p.m., and it was an auspicious debut. The show, starring ''Daily Show" regular Stephen Colbert, could turn out to be a strong follow-up to Stewart's more conventional half-hour, forming a late-night hour that creeps from the sardonic into the fully warped. While Stewart keeps one foot on Earth and rolls his eyes skyward, Colbert skyrockets into absurdity as an out-and-out parody of a celebrity commentator. With his blowhard vocal pattern and patriotic pretenses, he's a living, breathing caricature of Bill O'Reilly.

Indeed, while ''The Daily Show" goofs on the news itself, ''The Colbert Report" is a goof on journalism and its big egos. Early in the first episode, Colbert (pronounced Col-bare; the show is called ''The Col-bare Re-pore") announces that he's not aiming to form his opinions from truth. He declares that he's tired of fact, that he plans to speak from the heart. (On the screen behind him: ''Head bad, heart good.") His philosophy is an extension of the ''No- Fact Zone" segments he has done on ''The Daily Show," and he presents it with his usual Swiftian irony, marching further and further toward outrageous conclusions.

One of Colbert's strengths has always been wordplay, which is in full force on ''The Colbert Report" and gives the show an added level of wit. It makes the Colbert character more than just a sucker punch. He introduces the word ''truthiness," which refers to the approximation of truth, and he drops lines such as this one from his opening spiel to viewers: ''Open wide, baby bird, because mama's got a big, fat night crawler of truth." In describing his ideal audience, he said: ''You get it. You come from a long line of it getters." Clearly, Colbert loves the slipperiness of language, something most commentators use to make their points fly regardless of verity. Let's hope he and his writers can keep the lines wily on a nightly basis.