"The Colbert Report": Week of 9/29/14

[trow125]

9/29 JAMIE OLIVER - Author, “Comfort Food”
9/30 JEFFREY TAMBOR - “Transparent” Amazon Prime
10/1 ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN - Retired US Navy Admiral, served as the 17th chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 28th Chief of Naval Operations
10/2 LYNN SHERR - Author, “SALLY RIDE: America’s First Woman in Space”

[Fremde Frau]

I saw "Jamie Oliver" but read "John Oliver" and got extremely excited for a moment. Darn.

[Victor the Crab]

Maybe we should just give Kim Jong Un all the cheese he can gorge his tubby little self with. That way, he would kill himself.

 

That sticky pudding looks nasty. But I was never a dessert kind of guy.

[peeayebee]

I thought the toffee sticky pudding looked wonderful. I've never had it, but I had toffee sticky pudding frozen yogurt, and it is delicious.

[attica]

STP (o, unhappy acronym!) is pretty gooey; it's rare I don't find it too sweet. A smaller bit of cake and a bigger scoop of ice cream usually works, balancing the toffeetude with a creamy component.

[purist]

Is sticky toffee pudding not a thing in America? Here in Australia it's a staple on cafe and restaurant dessert menus, along with dishes such as tiramisu, crème caramel and lemon tart. STP is delicious, but in my opinion it's better with cream than ice-cream as it's very sweet.

Edited September 30, 2014 by purist

[Fremde Frau]

Collaborating with Santa is the worst kind of socialism. She should be ashamed.

 

I loved Stephen cracking up over the audience reaction to the Nazi joke. Every time he loses it is gold to me.

 

Also: I hate cheese. There is no food I hate more than cheese. It is a ubiquitous food here in rural Georgia, so much so that people seem to confuse it for a condiment. You can order something without cheese listed as an ingredient, and it'll come out with cheese on it. The response will be, "Oh, I'm sorry; you didn't specify." If you're lucky enough that a restaurant has an actual cheese-less dish, you still have to specify "no cheese" for your salad. It's like asking for no lemon in your water. Why is this necessary? Make it stop, for god's sake. Cheese just needs to die.

[attica]

Is sticky toffee pudding not a thing in America?

 

Nope, not a thing. Which isn't to say you can't get it anywhere, but it's def not a thing. First of all, 'pudding' to USers is not the catch-all term it is elsewhere. Pudding here is only a sweet custard dessert, like mousse but less airy. Like so.  So while the whole cake-drenched-in-goo thing may happen a lot on menus, it's generally not called STP.

Edited September 30, 2014 by attica

[Victor the Crab]

I think we just call those bundt cakes instead of sticky pudding.

[peeayebee]

Sticky pudding has dates in it. Bundt cakes are all different.

[Victor the Crab]

I guess Hans didn't get overly excited after Germany won the 2014 World Cup of soccer for health reasons. Is there any way he can show up on The Late Show once Stephen takes over the hosting duties?

 

Jeffrey Tambor has a very smart seven year old. I can remember him when he was first on a Three's Company spinoff, The Ropers.

[peeayebee]

Oh man, I LOVE Hans. 

 

 

I watched Transparent this past weekend. Very good. 

 

 

I haven't watched the Hellboy movies and didn't know Tambor was in them. 

[attica]

Hans cheers me up like an icy wind through the tombstones!

[Fremde Frau]

That was great. The bit with Hans was perfect and somehow both depressing and uplifting. Good point Stephen made about that poor scientist who counted the number of formerly cheerful dead people. 
 

Is there any way he can show up on The Late Show once Stephen takes over the hosting duties?

Yes, please.

[trow125]

I think this was posted here the last time Hans appeared on the show, but I just love this photo of the guy who plays Hans looking so un-Hans-like. (He's a guitarist/folk musician in real life!)

Maybe he could be the Larry "Bud" Melman of Stephen's "Late Show." (A little reference for any of you old school Letterman fans.)

[ABay]

HANS! Always a delight.

[Fremde Frau]

Jindal is trying to best Stephen on Twitter. He needs to just stop. Who's he aiming to be, Piers Morgan?

[marceline]

I was so glad Stephen asked Tambor about how to refer to transpeople. I've been a LGBT ally for my whole life but I have to admit that when it comes to the terminology about how to refer to trans women and men, I'm terribly confused about the right thing to say. I always lean on the "keep my mouth shut and hope that I get some indication of how to refer to the person in question" plan. It's been a steep learning curve and my footing has always been unsteady.

Edited October 2, 2014 by marceline

[lookeyloo]

As Louisianans who are not fans of Jindal, the Mr. and I were howling over that bit.

[Fremde Frau]

That was a fantastic interview with Tambor. The clip they showed was so powerful; I couldn't stop thinking of what my friend goes through in trying to correct that misperception with her family, especially her parents. We as her friends can say all of the supportive and understanding things that we feel, but the true understanding of her parents would be the biggest comfort and peace of all.

[Latverian Diplomat]

I really wish that Stephen had dialed back the joke machine for Louisa Lim the way he did later in the episode for Mullen I realize that makes for a pretty dour episode, but I think the Hong Kong situation deserves a more serious treatment.

[Hanahope]

Loved Stephen's take-down of Billo.

[attica]

I'm ashamed to need to ask, but what is the term for inhabitants of Hong Kong?

[Latverian Diplomat]

I'm ashamed to need to ask, but what is the term for inhabitants of Hong Kong?

According to the CIA World Fact Book, it's just Hong Konger(s). And yes, that sounds worse that just about any of Stephen's variations.

[Victor the Crab]

Another epic takedown of Bill O'Reilly by Stephen, especially when he said "Bill O'Reilly is a fucking egomaniac". I fully expect O'Reilly to start crying about it. Or try and take it out on Jon next week (and fail if he does). The smack at the Koch brothers was also epic as well.

[attica]

According to the CIA World Fact Book, it's just Hong Konger(s). And yes, that sounds worse that just about any of Stephen's variations.

I was sorta hoping it was Hong Konglodites, just 'cause that's fun to say. It's good I'm wrong. :)

[JustaPerson]

I've generally just heard Hong Kongese, which is almost never. All of the people that I know from there just refer to themselves as Canto (Cantonese). 

Edited October 3, 2014 by JustaPerson

[Bec]

I'm from HK, and I'm just glad Stephen covered the Umbrella Revolution. I've got no problem with the jokes, it's one way to make people pay attention. The fortune cookie is not going to translate well (fortune cookies are not actually a thing in HK), but his "perhaps they will do to the protestors what they're doing to the pigeons" and "The words 'instagram was blocked' is blocked. Isn't it possible the internet will just swallow itself?" got big laughs out of me.

 

All the jokes that the US is too under China's thumb to do anything... funny he should say that, because the narrative China is trying to spin around HK in an attempt to turn people against protesting is that the protestors are being manipulated by US agencies such as the CIA. Oh no, it can't possibly be that the people has been discontent for years and years and it's boiling over. It has to be foreign booeymen. That's their explanation for anything they don't like.

[Victor the Crab]

Quite embarrassing for NASA to keep women down during their space program. Especially since the Soviets had already sent women into space. At least they came around in a big way with Sally Ride and others after her.

[peeayebee]

I enjoyed the professor who talked about ebola. He had a good sense of humor. I also loved Stephen calling Africa "WhoCares-astan," because that's exactly how too many Americans reacted to the horrible outbreak there. 

[Latverian Diplomat]

I thought Stephen did a great job with the Lynn Sherr interview. He stayed in persona and delivered the jokes, but still kept the interview informative and respectful. It's an amazing balancing act. Sherr also deserves credit as an interviewee because she was unphased and didn't try to "be funny", which is something they ask of most of their guests to avoid trying to do.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Latverian Diplomat

[M. Darcy]

 

I enjoyed the professor who talked about ebola.

 

That is the best interview on the subject that I have seen because he got right to the point - most of us in America are not going to get the disease.    

[attica]

On the other hand, if the Friendly Friends at Fox and Friends got the infection, would we even be able to tell?

[Fremde Frau]

No, their bitching about how Obama caused it would blend into every other story they cover.

[ZoqFotPik]

Quite embarrassing for NASA to keep women down during their space program. Especially since the Soviets had already sent women into space. At least they came around in a big way with Sally Ride and others after her.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure the Soviets only did it so they could say they were first. It was 19 years before they would do it again, about a year before Ride's flight.