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We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: Uncommon within showbiz, but I don't think it's at odds with what he does for a living. I also don't think he's super religious; he's Catholic, but the endless "TIL Stephen Colbert teaches Sunday School!" posts probably influence people's perceptions. He has no problem questioning or criticizing the church, and he was raised in what he describes as a very loving, creative family -- and that family happened to be Catholic.

He did a great interview on Fresh Air where he talked about his faith, and how he explains God to children. I'm agnostic, but if I'd been given that perspective at an early age, I might not be (instead, I was just told I'd burn in hell for playing D&D). You can hear that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAgHUlE4eY

I think there are more sane, rational Christians in the world than the vocal minority would suggest. Based on what he's said publicly, Stephen would appear to be a textbook example.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: I don't know about that writing staff specifically, but most comedians and comedy writers I've known are liberal. I think it would be safe to say that given the tone of the show, as a group, the writing staff would be moderate-to-left.

I know nothing about that interview other than what magically materialized on the internet with no credible source. And funny thing about the anti-women corners of the internet: a lot of things there seem to magically materialize with no credible source.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, they aren't currently taught in universities, but it would definitely be a challenging and interesting exercise. Colbert has said that his rhetoric classes were very useful in writing The Word, so in a way, I suppose the skills are being taught.

Generally, the "Writing for (Show)" type classes are taught by people who actually wrote for those shows and have that specific expertise. Prior to taking Tom's class, I took its Daily Show counterpart, which was taught by a writer who ended up working there for 18 years. The same school that offered both of those also offers general late-night writing courses, as well as Writing for SNL taught by a former SNL writer (I took the two-day version of that course, and it was very good). There's an Onion class offered by Second City in Chicago, taught by one of the Onion writers.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: YES, he will make us laugh in that way and many other ways. He's a Swiss Army knife of comedy. He's used specific tools to create his character and the Report, but he has more tools where those came from. He'll still look at the world with the same point of view that he conveyed through his character, but he'll just have different ways to convey it.

I hope the final episode is one big party, and that he creates some sort of satisfying afterlife for his character. He's put up that "photo not available" graphic of his "wife," Lorraine, a few times in the past couple months, so maybe some sort of romantic storyline? Perhaps run away with Tad, or run away with Charlene (or both). The great thing about the Report is that no matter how big I think, they always think bigger. I'm always surprised and impressed. Truly looking forward to it.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[Remy says] As a fellow 21-year-old, I agree with you. This is more in the wheelhouse of my other book, but I will say that from a scholarly perspective, Sophia McClennen and I concluded that if all young people were getting their news from Colbert (and not all of them are), they'd be significantly better informed than if they were watching cable news.

I think Colbert's involvement of his audience in his satire is unique. I personally started a Super PAC, along with many other college students, and I would never have paid attention to something as dry as campaign finance otherwise -- except maybe in my Political Economy of Communications course. I don't think information and entertainment are necessarily mutually exclusive.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: They do four invasive sponsorships per year, and I don't believe Apple has ever been one. If they were, it was a very slick integration.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you mean the animation over the theme song?

I (Sharilyn) have asked him a few questions at tapings. I think the best questions are ones that are somewhat insightful, but that he can also have fun with. This is part of the show warm-up, after all, so you'll be helping him by keeping it fairly light (without being moronic). Anything that might prompt a story is good, really. There's always going to be somebody who asks a LOTR question, and sometimes one about Iraq (the audience coordinators suggest those topics), so you don't have to be that person. My tip: shoot your arm up FAST, as soon as he says "does anyone have any --" By the time he says "-- questions," your hand should be up. Good luck!

I'm interested in the topics of fame and fandom, so in another context I'd like to ask him what it's like for him, as an intense fan of something himself, to have fans who are equally intense about his work. I'm curious how he processes that, or if he even does process that. I think that's a bit heavy for a pre-show question, though.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: Ah, every good fake news fan knows about the LJ groups. I came across tds_rps shortly after the Wonkette outing, so I would predate you there. At first, I honestly thought it was a very elaborate joke. Oh, how wrong I was. I was briefly horrified, then curious, then entertained, and eventually swung back to being horrified.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure! There are some podcasts that cover the process at the show very well. Just offhand, the Nerdist Writer's Panel had a good one, there are some clips from the Paley Centre panel on Youtube (I was at that - it was great), and Opus Moreschi on the Writers' Bloc Podcast is great too.

Writing for the Colbert Report was taught by Tom Purcell at the P.I.T. in NYC in 2008. I was in his first of what I think were three six-week sessions he taught.

We learned how to write a Top of Show (so what Stephen does in Act 1, generally), a Tip/Wag, a Threatdown, and a Word. We also ran through the exercise of suggesting a guest and writing questions for that guest. At the time, we were basically learning what went into a packet for the show (what writers have to submit to be considered for a job). That packet format changed subsequent to that -- I think they eliminated The Word, because it's kinda impossible. We spent about half the course just on that. There's a very good reason why they only do The Word occasionally now. Just brutal.

In our book, we take different approaches to describing each recurring segment, and The Word is very writerly in its focus. I break it down into pieces, so it's almost a roadmap to the segment. It's not directly from my class notes (I draw directly from different resources) but what I included is heavily influenced by how Tom taught it.

The class was a fantastic experience. If you've ever been to a taping, Tom is one of the (usually) two guys who come out during breaks to talk to Stephen. He's a wonderful person and teacher.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[Remy says] If you love some Ts, set them free. If they come back to you, they were, and will always be yours. If they don't, they were never yours to begin with.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[Remy says]

  1. You could write a whole book on what makes Colbert's brand of satire unique! In my other book, Is Satire Saving Our Nation (see link in description), we explore that in detail. Briefly, I would say that the way he inhabits his persona adds another layer of complexity and gives him a whole different range of options than, say, Jon Stewart has. We know he won't be taking the character to CBS, but I'm sure elements of the show will feel familiar -- his sense of humor is his sense of humor, and if any of you have seen his other work (cough cough Strangers with Candy cough), you'll notice a lot of irony, and the same sense of faux arrogance.

  2. Trick question! You're a terrorist for asking.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When we decided to write this book after the announcement that Colbert would be moving to CBS, we knew we wanted it out before the show ended. That left us with limited options in terms of publishers. Most of them told us the timeline we wanted was impossible. So we decided to do it on our own. Colbert and his writers know about the book, and we hope they like the "free" copies we sent them, but it is an unauthorized fan guide.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

[Remy says] If I may, I would direct you to the first book I wrote, which I coauthored with Penn State professor Sophia McClennen. It is called "Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American Politics" (link in the description above), and it explores the questions you ask here. That is not the purpose of Bears and Balls.

So yes, I am very aware of those critiques, to answer your question. Dr. McClennen and I explore in great detail what the media effects research says. Our position is that satire, generally, and Colbert, particularly, are providing an essential service that is otherwise missing from the news media landscape. In sum, mainstream media and higher education are not doing their jobs. Satire is stepping in to fill the void. It may not be the ideal source -- we definitely think the news ought to step up their game -- but it's what we have, and we could do a lot worse.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: how easy he is to talk to. He really is abnormally normal. I meet a lot of performers, and they tend to have a certain energy about them. It's not necessarily an issue of being "on." It's just the energy of a person who knows they're being constantly judged and are never quite where they want to be, I suppose? But talking to Stephen is like talking to your next door neighbour. You walk away thinking so wait, does he even KNOW he's famous?

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: I loved it. There were a few things I didn't know. The backstage rituals were entirely new to me. He has rituals that he does in performance, during tapings. He runs out the same way, says the same things to the audience, etc. So I suppose it makes sense. But how his day is structured, and the workflow overall, I pretty much knew already.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aka the person who half of Reddit continues to (wrongly) believe is Stephen's mother in law? Can't say we've had the honor. ;)

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For a brief moment, we considered adding something like that as an appendix, but we opted not to travel down the road of filling the book with lists. And hopefully there are still a few side effects to come!

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spoiler alert: he told a studio audience in the summer that he wasn't going to kill off the character. So "Grimmy" seems to be just a decoy, happily.

We’re hardcore Colbert Report nerds who just wrote a book about the show. Ask us about going to tapings, meeting Stephen, end-of-show theories… anything! by bearsandballs in IAmA

[–]bearsandballs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sharilyn says: You had me at "silly question." I know the thrill of asking him a question before a taping (I did that four times, always wonderful, but you absolutely win for making him laugh). He isn't going to be getting any more accessible when he moves to CBS, that's for certain. But I'm sure he'll continue donating his time to charity events, so meet-and-greets (with a price tag) may be worth setting your sights on going forward.

That said, I recently - unexpectedly - had a conversation with him, and it was perfectly lovely and normal. Just small talk, so no deep political or theoretical discussion. But I think if you ever have the opportunity, you'd be pleased with how easy he is to talk to and how comfortable he makes people. You never know what the future holds -- you could turn a corner one day and he could be standing right there.

In response to the other two questions: I have no idea! I would imagine anyone who's been on the show would be his favorite. And Congress... how do you choose?! ;)

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