In general, I’ve been eliminating (admittedly somewhat unsuccessfully) the majority of my television consumption from my daily diet. What I once devoured in strict eight-hour doses, I, at present, have all but sworn off. Still, there’s one show that I can’t seem to abolish from my routine: the Colbert Report, one of the most unrelenting satires on television. I say unrelenting because it seems that Stephen Colbert, the person, refuses to shed Stephen Colbert, the ultra conservative talk show personality, even for a moment. Unfortunately, whoever hired him to be the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents Dinner wasn’t aware of this.

His speech (of which the first third can be viewed here) walked the line between funny and uncomfortable with its brutal assault on the President’s policy given in the guise of unwavering support. Whether you oppose his viewpoint or support his arguments (as satirical as he presents them), all must agree that it was quite bold within such close proximity of the President himself. Among my favorite excerpts include the following:

“Let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know — fiction.”

After the utterly disappointing satire of American Dreamz and the somewhat muddled attempt at it in Thank You For Smoking, it’s refreshing to witness a truly bold satirist unafraid to take on his opponent on his home turf, with his adversary not more than eight feet away, staring him directly in the eye. In addition, unlike American Dreamz, Colbert’s antics can get by on their zeal since he adds gravity to his effrontery, reinforcing it with razor sharp wit and assisted by the fact that he delivers all this with impeccable straight-faced sincerity in which nothing appears all that obvious while somehow being handled in an extremely candid manner.

Not suprisingly, the speech has been spun to reflect that Colbert’s efforts bombed. Tucker Carlson called it embarrassing, apparently forgetting his own propensity to be characterized by that word. Whether Colbert’s speech suceeded or not depends on your point of view and who his intended audience happened to be. So, for those of you who find it unbearable to gaze upon the sour despair barely concealed in the President’s visage during Colbert’s speech, I suppose you can turn to this lighten up the mood. Awwwww, how cute, there’s two George Bushes. Listen to that audience eat it up!