CHARLESTON, S.C. - The day before South Carolina's January 21 primary, the comedian Stephen Colbert had some instructions for an exuberant crowd of about 3,000 people: "I want you to vote for Herman Cain," he said. "Because Herman Cain is me."
The host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report"-- who also says he's running to be "President of the United States of South Carolina" -- rushed onstage singing "This Little Light of Mine" before thanking a handful of conservative South Carolina politicians not in attendance, and making fun of the current GOP presidential field.
After a lengthy introduction, he brought in Herman Cain -- his co-host and, as he put it, "the man we're all gathered here to see introduce me." (This assessment ultimately proved accurate.)
Cain, Colbert hammed, is similar to him in many ways: "We both flout convention when it comes to things like taxes and debt and how many Ubekis there are in Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan."
But, he added, "he possesses the one thing I don't think I will ever have: A place on the South Carolina primary ballot."
Taking to the stage for his share of the spectacle, Cain was unapologetic about participating in an event that, ostensibly, means to make a mockery of the very presidential race from which he only recently withdrew.
But "the Hermanator," as Colbert referred to him, stopped short of actually encouraging the thousands of young people on hand to actually vote for him.
"Stephen Colbert asked you to vote for Herman Cain," he said, "I'm going to ask you to not vote for Herman Cain and here's why. I don't want you to waste your vote. Every vote counts and yours still matters and you still matter.
Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington on Oct. 30, 2010, didn’t really resonate with me: it was too close to the cults of personality he was lampooning to actually feel like a condemnation. Stephen Colbert, by contrast, intervenes in ways that can be uncomfortably aggressive and that are starting to force the system to step in and shut him down, as it did when he tried to buy the naming rights to the South Carolina Republican primary.
I’m interested in that kind of pranksterism, or, as the article puts it about Colbert’s improv teacher Del Close, “more nearly a philosophy or a way of life than just a way of getting laughs.
The host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report"-- who also says he's running to be "President of the United States of South Carolina" -- rushed onstage singing "This Little Light of Mine" before thanking a handful of conservative South Carolina politicians not in attendance, and making fun of the current GOP presidential field.
After a lengthy introduction, he brought in Herman Cain -- his co-host and, as he put it, "the man we're all gathered here to see introduce me." (This assessment ultimately proved accurate.)
Cain, Colbert hammed, is similar to him in many ways: "We both flout convention when it comes to things like taxes and debt and how many Ubekis there are in Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan."
But, he added, "he possesses the one thing I don't think I will ever have: A place on the South Carolina primary ballot."
Taking to the stage for his share of the spectacle, Cain was unapologetic about participating in an event that, ostensibly, means to make a mockery of the very presidential race from which he only recently withdrew.
But "the Hermanator," as Colbert referred to him, stopped short of actually encouraging the thousands of young people on hand to actually vote for him.
"Stephen Colbert asked you to vote for Herman Cain," he said, "I'm going to ask you to not vote for Herman Cain and here's why. I don't want you to waste your vote. Every vote counts and yours still matters and you still matter.
Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington on Oct. 30, 2010, didn’t really resonate with me: it was too close to the cults of personality he was lampooning to actually feel like a condemnation. Stephen Colbert, by contrast, intervenes in ways that can be uncomfortably aggressive and that are starting to force the system to step in and shut him down, as it did when he tried to buy the naming rights to the South Carolina Republican primary.
I’m interested in that kind of pranksterism, or, as the article puts it about Colbert’s improv teacher Del Close, “more nearly a philosophy or a way of life than just a way of getting laughs.
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