Stephen Colbert in Congress (7/9): Testimony Part 2 - Immigrant Farm Workers (2010)

September 24, 2010 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/immigrant-farm-workers-stephen-co...

Since October 17, 2005, Colbert has hosted his own television show, The Colbert Report, a Daily Show spin-off which parodies the conventions of television news broadcasting, particularly cable-personality political talk shows like The O'Reilly Factor and Glenn Beck. Colbert hosts the show in-character as a blustery right-wing pundit, generally considered to be an extension of his character on The Daily Show. Conceived by co-creators Stewart, Colbert, and Ben Karlin in part as an opportunity to explore "the character-driven news", the series focuses less on the day-to-day news style of the Daily Show, instead frequently concentrating on the foibles of the host-character himself.

The concept for The Report was first seen in a series of Daily Show segments which advertised the then-fictional series as a joke. It was later developed by Stewart's Busboy Productions and pitched to Comedy Central, which greenlighted the program; Comedy Central had already been searching for a way to extend the successful Daily Show franchise beyond a half hour. The series opened to strong ratings, averaging 1.2 million viewers nightly during its first week on the air. Comedy Central signed a long-term contract for The Colbert Report within its first month on the air, when it immediately established itself among the network's highest-rated shows.

Much of Colbert's personal life is reflected in his character on The Colbert Report. With the extended exposure of the character on the show, he often references his interest in and knowledge of Catholicism, science fiction, and The Lord of the Rings, as well as using real facts to create his character's history. His alternate persona was also raised in South Carolina, is the youngest of 11 siblings, and is married. The actual Colbert's career history in acting and comedy, however, is often downplayed.

On Saturday, April 29, 2006, Stephen Colbert was the featured entertainer for the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Standing a few yards from U.S. President George W. Bush — in front of an audience the Associated Press called a "Who's Who of power and celebrity" — Colbert delivered a searing routine targeting the president and the media. In his politically conservative character from The Colbert Report, Colbert satirized the George W. Bush Administration and the White House press corps with such lines as:
"I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound—with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."

Colbert received a chilly response from the audience. His jokes were often met with silence and muttering, apart from the enthusiastic laughter of a few in the audience. The major media outlets paid little attention to it initially. Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor Todd Gitlin claimed that this was because Colbert's routine was as critical of the media as it was of Bush. Richard Cohen, also writing for The Washington Post, responded that the routine was not funny. The video of Colbert's performance became an Internet and media sensation, and ratings for The Colbert Report rose 37% in the week following the speech. In Time magazine James Poniewozik called it "the political-cultural touchstone issue of 2006." Writing six months later, New York Times columnist Frank Rich referred to Colbert's speech as a "cultural primary" and called it the "defining moment" of the 2006 midterm elections. The performance earned Colbert the "Gutsiest Move" Award on Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards on June 13, 2007.

The Rally to Restore Sanity and March to Keep Fear Alive are two pseudo-competing demonstrations, led by Jon Stewart and an in-character Stephen Colbert, respectively, planned to occur on October 30, 2010 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. They are billed as "a rally for the people who've been too busy to go to rallies." The stated purpose of the rallies is to provide a venue for attendees to be heard above what Stewart describes as the more vocal and extreme 15 to 20 percent of Americans who "control the conversation" of United States politics, such as the Tea Party movement and the anti-war movement that opposed the presidential administration of George W. Bush.

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[PalvCast]

I like how Maxine Waters separates "Americans" and "African Americans" ... Can't we all just be on the same fucking page here? American's are American's, stop separating us based on race.

[maykomarquez]

fat guy shaking his head... hahaha

[wolfmoon256]

this will probably end up getting flamed but and i am not a polition so i don't know all of their little rules but why not just figure out a way to get the illegal immigrants into the system, make them legal workers and then have them pay taxes?

[PalvCast]

@IllegalAmigo07 haha oops, I don't pay attention when I type sometimes. Fail on my part.

[IllegalAmigo07]

@PalvCast As soon as you stop separating the s in Americans with an apostrophe GODDAMN IT

[bluchismoon]

You know, all of a sudden Congresswoman Waters' comment sounded a bit racist... How come it's only Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans working out in the fields? I'm sure there must be some white people or others working out there with them, no? How come it sounds like they're putting "Mexicans" against African Americans?

[MrLewisMovies]

@bluchismoon i agree

[bluchismoon]

@MrLewisMovies one thing, how would you know they are Mexican? You'd have to say something like Hispanic or Latino instead. Just so we're clear.

[ParanoidMenehune]

@PalvCast Amen to that.

[RedDragonSpiegel]

10:22 not sure if winking :/

[PalvCast]

@MrLewisMovies I understand that, but she is separating them completely as if they were completely unrelated to Americans in general.

[MrLewisMovies]

@PalvCast please define what the typical american looks like... you cant. we are so diverse that these categories are needed. When a person breaks into your house, do you describe them to the police as american? no. you describe them as (Caucasion, african american, mexican, etc.)