Stephen Colbert Gives Apple iPhone Rare "Double Wag of the Finger"
Labels: Apple, Cisco, Colbert, Double Wag, iPhone, iPhony, Jointblog, Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger
...Until he gets one shipped for free from Steve Jobs, of course.
Within 36 hours of Apple's MacWorld Expo presentation of the new soon-to-be-released iPhone, Cisco Systems slapped Apple with a copyright infringement lawsuit over the naming of the new product.
But did Cisco lose their rights last year?
Dealing with Cisco may be easy compared with Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report.
Every week, Colbert offers his top "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger" observations on the do-gooders and not-so-do-gooders.
Did the iPhone earn a tip of the hat? No...both Apple and the iPhone earn the rare (and feared) double-finger-wag from a critical Colbert. Dropping "computer" from your name, he lectures, does not make you cool (hello now, Apple, Inc.). And integrating too many features into a single, easy-to-use platform takes away from the basic rule of life: Whoever dies with the most toys wins.
"The legends are true, it exists...the much feared double-wag" of his finger. The Apple iPhone left Colbert "flaccid with rage." Click here for the video or stream it below.
...Now, those of you "sporting wood" instead over the iPhone who don't want to wait until June can at least spruce up your Treo with iPhony, which converts the Palm OS "look" to the iPhone look...
...For a closer look at the iPhone, click here.
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, January 13, 2007,
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Big Brassy Balls: The Colbert Blog Victory Mainstream Media Missed
Labels: Big brassy balls, blog, Colbert, Colbert Report
The media trend of truthiness continues to dig in deeper.
It's been quite a week for the father of truthiness Stephen Colbert. First, he was the final speaker at the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner, where he skewered George Bush and his Cabinet with verbal smart bombs using his "Colbert Report" persona and even enlisted pressroom Grand Madame Helen Thomas in his spoof "audition tape" for the White House Press Secretary job he was never offered.
In case you missed it, here's the transcript of his performance.
And here is the actual video -- part 1 and part 2.
Then he was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential. This week's blog explosition mostly in favor of Colbert shows exactly how influential he's become.
The blogs all got the story: Boing Boing, Instapundit, Drudge, DailyKos, Huffington Report, and thousand more (including the Jointblog). Even the official press release version from the White House Correspondent's Office applauded it.
However, the most important part of the story is that mainstream media seemed to overlook the fact that someone - FINALLY - had the courage to directly deliver to President Bush the frustration felt by the 68% of the population disapproving Bush. The "underground" blogs clearly got it. And mainstream News missed once again.
Most core conservatives didn't get the style of humor (what? they don't watch the show?) and the White House itself said Colbert's joking was misplaced or simply said it wasn't funny. It was reported Bush even frowned during the performance. The mainstream media mainly printed pictures of Bush's stunt double pretending to be Bush, hardly mentioning a thing about Colbert's bravura performance.
Some -- like Time -- did ask if Colbert was funny or not. But most seemed to think mainstream media missed the story, including venerable news institutions like the Washington Post. Sure, the office of the President deserves respect and a degree of demurement. Last I checked, though, this was a Republic for the People. There is a reason the media is called the Fourth Estate. Truth needs exposure, it needs the light. And News organizations are charged with that responsibility. But why is it they so often hestitate to confront?
Online, the Colbert story was one of the hottest search items of the week. According to the Yahoo Buzz Index, searches on Colbert were up 5,625% this week and picking up speed. Trajectories for "Colbert speech" and "colbert video" are racing off the chart. And "The Colbert Report," its fan site Colbert Nation, and the newly created ThankYouStephenColbert.org also launched upward in Buzz. Same thing over on both Google Video and YouTube, which both carry the C-Span video.
Colbert accomplished something millions of Americans have wanted to do -- give President Bush a piece of their mind. That he did in spades, in true truthiness style, using his infamous "big brassy balls". Even if it was done in double-speak. Perhaps that's the only language this White House understands.
posted by Unknown @ Sunday, May 07, 2006,
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