So last night, Stephen Colbert was filming his show at UPenn this week in anticipation for the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are known for making politicians look less than flattering. In Colbert’s popular segment, “Better Know a District” Colbert was accused of editing the interviews to make the politicians sound…well…racist, stupid and on occasion, like drug users.
Because of this reputation, politicians have been unwilling to be guests on their shows. Nancy Pelosi even told Democratic politicians to stop going onto the show to save face. Also presidential canditates have not appeared on the show for fear of looking bad, except for Mike Huckabee who came from behind to almost become the Republican presidential candidate, thanks to the “Colbert Bump”.
What are politicians thinking?Really. Can’t they have any sort of sense of humor. Most young people today watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to get their political news and information, and also to laugh at the absurdities of the media and the political system. The point of going on to The Colbert Report and The Daily Show is to be made fun of and to take in the absurdities with the host and the audience. Even if Colbert makes you sound like an ass, its really only helps your campaign because the young people now think that the candidate is “with it” or cool for taking the jabs from Colbert and Stewart. It is really foolish not to go on the shows and to think that their shows are not important to the presidential race, because both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart carry a lot of weight and influence in the youth vote.
Last night, FINALLY both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made an appearance on “The Colbert Report” and made fun of themselves as well as some negative press that have plagued their campaign (Hillary’s infamous 3AM phone ad and Barack Obama being an “Elitist”; All candidates are multi-millionaires, and therefore all three are elitists). Ex-presidential hopeful John Edwards even stopped by and after he did “The Word” I wish he was still running. He was funny, charming and pretty down to Earth. I think that All three of the candidates should have made the move and appeared on both the Colbert Report and The Daily Show much earlier in the Election and should make several visits back before November. The candidates, like it or not, have to face the fact that two hosts on Comedy Central, which air before and after “South Park” and the encore episode of “South Park” are just as important to the election as Anderson Cooper.