"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" thread.

Better than Carson???
Carson was the MASTER at that and he wrote the book.

Go back and find the episode where the Marmasat relieves himself on Carsons head. Carsons reaction and his engagement with the audience may be the funniest ever filmed. No one can come close to Carson.

 

Carson had the appeal for the common man style of engaging and flirting with the audience. Someone you'ld feel you could meet at a bar or socially awkward venue and be made comfortable by his confidence and non-threatening demeanor and reactions to exchanges in normal conversations. Colbert has more of an intellectual tone that I find more engaging and interesting.

I've been catching up watching a lot of Carson reruns I missed when I was a working stiff and I'm a little taken aback by the amount of dead air in exchanges with celebrities and other non-celebrity guests. Lot of awkward moments, but when he's doing his monologue is when he takes control and dances with the audience. He just has a different style overall than Colbert.

 

Colbert is not without his own awkward moments. It's as if, during interviews, everything has to be a bit, and it just doesn't work every time during an interview. I would say he's an average interviewer. I thought Letterman, later in his career, was very good, and asked interesting questions.
The Colbert Report was brilliant though.

 

This can't be said enough, how gobsmackingly brilliant The Colbert Rerport was. It was good to begin with, and it only got better and better every year. A high-wire act of the highest order.

I'm not sure I'll see another topical, socially-conscious, fall-on-the-floor-funny piece of television like it in my lifetime.

And to be perfectly honest, I don't think I ever appreciated The Colbert Report anywhere near enough while it was still on, until it was gone and I missed it so. The last 4-5 years, we never missed an episode, but even then, it was just always there -- and it's only now that it's gone that I realize how nobody's done anything like it, let alone better, in 30-40 years (at least).