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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   448 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026

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So, since Colbert is now off CBS, first of all he hosted a really quite funny hourlong program on local community access in Michigan, hosting an hour of "Only in Monroe". This reminded me in parts of when he was, well, more funny - on the Colbert Report in particular, which I have fond memories of. So to have a little time capsule, let's go back and watch an episode from 12 years ago! Also two years after a re-election of an influential president now a good portion into their second term, but it's Obama this time around. Link (best I could find) and cleaned transcript

I find it an interesting mini-window into the happenings of the culture war! There's some good stuff here, Colbert Report never fails to get a laugh from me.

First we have a report about Chinese cyperspies who had charges filed after hacking five US companies and stealing solar secrets. In retrospect, China totally got away with this one, which was IMO a significant Obama admin failure. More topically for use, we have a somewhat racist joke! Yes, for those of you know might not know, Colbert plays a parody of a conservative in this show, so sometimes being offensive is part of the joke - honestly I thought he did a really nice job of straddling the line overall to keep both the comedy and honestly offer some criticism along the way (and not all of it hits Republicans, of course!) But it's still interesting that in this era Colbert can still get away with it. 2014 isn't actually peak woke, you might say.

Yes, cyber spies! It's like a regular spy but instead of a tuxedo you wear an adventure time t-shirt with nacho stains. (laughter) The Justice Department has put out this wanted poster to help us identify these dangerous online criminals. So look for it at the post office, when you go pick up your email, (laughter) and it's a true rogue's gallery. For instance, Gui Chunhui -- who also goes by the alias KandyGoo [sic], a clever way to pass for an American, name yourself after our two most popular foods -- and the infamous Wang Dong, whose name in English translates to Peter Johnson, Jr. (laughter)

It is about time they nailed Wang Dong! I get email offers from Wang Dong all the time, and the pills he sold me never arrived. Now how will she call me Mr. Pleasure at sight of extraordinary power manhood? In an attempt to give an edge to Chinese industries, these guys stole trade secrets from corporations like Westinghouse, U.S. Steel, Alcoa, and the renewable energy company SolarWorld. Of course, the Chinese can't do their own solar research since they no longer have access to the sun. (laughter)

Folks, this is a major threat to our financial future. The Chinese already know how to manufacture all our electronics. Now they're trying to learn how to design them. If they also figure out how to buy them and drop them in the toilet when they're drunk, America will have no role in the world economy!

So in a way it didn't age well twice! Or maybe just once. I don't think the jokes were that mean-spirited. And then we have Hillary Clinton show up as a topic! Yes, she's getting ready to run at this point in time. Karl Rove alleges she has brain damage. Some news clips are played alleging that Republicans are scared of her running so they are trying to talk her out of it or throw water on the idea. There's some jokes about how they aren't going to take it easy on her for being a woman, and jokes about TV Republicans hitting their wives. And a dated primary preview!

Point is, if we're going to stop Hillary, nothing is out of bounds. We have to be completely vicious to her, because the only alternative is running a candidate people like. Jim, who do we have on the bench?

[News clip] Senator Rand Paul is the early frontrunner for Republicans in 2016. [News clip] Mike Huckabee jumped to the head of the pack. [News clip] Rick Perry. Chris Christie. Senator Marco Rubio talking 2016 --

[Stephen] Oh, my God... (laughter) We've got to hit her hard!

Thank God the rest of these losers aren't running again, except for, well, Rubio of course. I can't wait to see clips of his debate meltdown circulate again. Also, bit of a prescient call by Colbert about the tone of things?

In a glimpse of Comedy Central's 2014 America, we then have a Tosh.0 ad, a hard cider ad, a $40/mo T-Mobile 4G LTE data plan ad (500MB cap! unlimited talk and text!), an ad for the Edge of Tomorrow movie, an Infiniti car ad, honestly a pretty cool Sapporo premium beer ad, a California Great America theme park ad.

After the break? A news item about Europe proposing a "right to be forgotten" to Google and such. Whatever happened to this? Apparently, Google (heh) tells me that basically it got limited to European visibility, and only for names; so nothing disappears on the US or worldwide side of the Web. But I will say, corporations are much much better at doing this than people seem to be. However, I think there's still a healthy market for reverse-SEO, though with AI stuff who knows how this will pan out in a few more years.

We then have an Inside Amy Schumer ad, a decent lengthy Apple ad for the iPad Air with a Dead Poet's Society tie-in and one with a travel blogger, a Sharpie ad, a Bacardi liquor ad, an American Express bank ad, a Dignity Health ad introducing the ability to wait for your appointment via online scheduling, a Fiat x Godzilla movie crossover ad, and a one second flash of a lingerie ad that gets cut off. Honestly it doesn't seem like ads have changed all that much. Although modern ads maybe lean a bit too hard into overdone, overplayed "skits" rather than more "cinematic" type ads?

Finally, in a bit that will interest some people here, we had the creator of Mad Men hosted, going in to Part 1 of the final season (yes apparently splitting up the second season to milk it was a thing even back in 2014 at least). Although he claims it was a scheduling issue. IDK man. Anyways:

It's been on for seven seasons. Let me summarize what happened: Don smoked, banged everything on the Eastern Seaboard, sold California, sold some soap, was grim about it. And smoked some more. Is he a criticism of the American male? Because I'm an American male, and should I be taking this personally?

[Weiner] I don't think it's meant as a negative thing. I always sort of thought that he was about the sort of split message that the American male gets: that you are told that you -- to be attractive -- on the one hand, you have to be, like, you know, Little League coach and, like, P.T.A. guy, great husband, great dad. On the other hand, you are supposed to smoke as much, drink as much, and get laid as much as possible.

[Stephen] And get the other guy. [Matthew Weiner] And be carnivorous in business. [Stephen] Right. Those two things. I'm always surprised how much people get off on him winning, but I don't judge him at all. None of this is supposed to be a judgment of the audience. I was afraid he was judging me. When the show started, he was a shiny object, fun, sexy, but as it goes on, he becomes an even more complex character. Why present something complex? Why can't I just be kind of fun and sexy, you know, good-looking guy, and then take all that inner life and just keep it down until one day it just kills me, and then, you know, my loved ones read my letters and cry forever? (laughter)

[Weiner] That is the theory. What you just described is a good theory. [Stephen] This is 1969. [Weiner] Yeah.

I never watched Mad Men, but I know it had at least some impact. Some allege it impacted fashion and brought back some of the furniture and suit aesthetic, cocktails, and I'm sure it had some impact on gender narratives, or at the very least promoted a certain view of historical gender narratives. Thankfully I don't think it really brought back smoking as something cool, although it possibly coincided with the Juul vape wave a year or so later. Is there really a duality in male expectations? Yeah, kinda. You need to be safe, but then also randomly dangerous with swagger at other times. And you need to be oozing confidence in business.

So, anyways, what did we learn from our glance into the past? Well it's just a point in time, but an effectively random one. It's interesting to me how evergreen some of these issues and situations are, in a sense. Worries about cybercrime, nation-state hacking campaigns, industrial espionage against the US, the struggles of the social media age and privacy. A Democrat that seems poised to sweep the primary field early on having laid a ton of groundwork (Newsom), against a grab-bag of unlikable Republicans, who might have a dark horse jump in later on and upend things (TBD, but I sort of think there's a decent chance the nominee isn't Rubio or Vance! not a great chance but maybe 30%?). Is there a prominent TV show right now that talks about masculinity in any big sense? I don't really think so. Ted Lasso sort of presented an alternate vision, Succession had a bit to say, Yellowstone maybe theoretically but it's I think too soapy to really count. I think it's fair to say that the media culture has fragmented significantly since the mid-2010s, at least it feels that way?

(Also, is Mad Men worth watching?)

Im not sure what we should call the phenomenon you're describing but its basically the male equivalent of the Madonna-whore complex. Definitely a thing.

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