Valleywag: Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert blogs about his Twitters

Owen Thomas — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:00:00 PST

Whenever I read a Twitter, part of me wonders if the person who sent it has any actual work to do. Jon Stewart, cohosting Comedy Central's election-night coverage, wondered the same thing about cohost Stephen Colbert.

Hulu lands Viacom's Colbert and Stewart

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PDT

Now showing on NBC Universal and News Corp. Web video joint venture Hulu: the Daily Show's Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central. Viacom, which owns the Comedy Central network, has long hinted it might join Hulu — we heard rumors the deal was done in March — but until now had only announced agreements with Joost, the failing Internet video company founded by Skype founders Nikolas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

Webby Award winners a typical mix of celebs and self-promoters

Jackson West — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Another year, another round of nominees who paid up to $475 to be considered for a Webby have been awarded their publicity prizes. The long-running promotional gambit started by early Valley PR pro Tiffany Shlain, now under new management, does give awards to "special honorees" whom I presume don't have to pay. Those deemed "special" provide big names for media coverage and a draw for award winners to shell out for tickets to the awards gala. This year, Stephen Colbert is the biggest name, having won "Person of the Year" for his achievements in promoting himself online when he was unable to do so on air during the TV writers' strike. Michel Gondry got the nod for "Film and Video Person of the Year" for convincing YouTubers to promote his movie Be Kind, Rewind. And Will.i.am's treacly Yes We Can video garnered the musician "Artist of the Year." Who didn't win? Any of the engineers who, you know, build the Web. (Photo by AP/Matt Rourke)

Jimmy Wales drops off the Time 100 list again

Owen Thomas — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Safe to say that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales's plan to take Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden to the Time 100 party are definitely off. Not only have Wales and Marsden broken up, but Time has, as we predicted, declined to return Wales to its list of the most influential people. Think he'll shrug this off? Check out this video from last year where he complained to Stephen Colbert about getting bumped for the likes of Tyra Banks:

Colbert salutes powers of Web to "help women achieve perfection"

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:20:01 PST

"We've had 95 women reach their goal of getting free breast implants and that's 190 boobs," says MyFreeImplants.com founder Jason Grunstra. "That's a two-to-one ratio!" Stephen Colbert reported in this clip, his salute to the power of the Internet to bring the many to the assistance of a few. The clip, below.

Colbert and Stewart ratings slip as writers strike

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:19:30 PST

The TV and film writers' strike over a share of Internet video revenue forced Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert out from behind their desks. Now, their absence is starting to take a toll on Comedy Central's ratings, as the channel airs outdated reruns of the always-topical shows. TV Decoder reports that among viewers ages 25 to 54, The Daily Show is down 35 percent and The Colbert Report is down 28 percent. But don't expect the "very successful entertainment executive, who is also quite young for his position" featured above to cave anytime soon.

Truthiness wins again, beating Obama, Clinton on Facebook

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:19:13 PDT

Presidential candidate and news personality Stephen Colbert is motivating the masses and breaking records. Facebook group "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert" reached the promised million members in 8.5 days. By contrast, the Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack) group has 384,700 members. The group Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)? 504,148.

Stephen Colbert thanks Craig Newmark for killing the American newspaper

Tim Faulkner — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:03:56 PDT

The rote nonanswers Craigslist founder Craig Newmark gives in interviews are normally snooze-provoking. But Stephen Colbert makes them hilarious. When Newmark humbly claims he sees no reason to make more money with his comfortable lifestyle, Colbert replies, "to rub it in someone's face." Colbert also plugs Newmark's latest attempt to change the world, the DonorsChoose charity, because of a program which submits donations in the name of presidential candidates. Who's leading? That's right, Stephen Colbert, master of the plug.

Richard Branson gets a bit wet over Virgin America

Owen Thomas — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:36:08 PDT

We missed this the first time around: Virgin founder Richard Branson, touting the new San Francisco-based airline Virgin America, drenches Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert with a bottle of water. Whatever it takes, Sir Richard, as long as you keep provoking United and American into suicidal fare wars on the SFO-JFK route.

Google wants to depose Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert

Owen Thomas — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:27:49 PDT

Well, this should be good for a laugh: In its pending copyright spat with Viacom, Google has listed comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as some of the Viacom employees it wants to depose, Silicon Alley Insider reports. No doubt it wants the fake newsmen to fess up to how much of their popularity they owe to free distribution on Google's YouTube. Read the entire legal filing here (PDF).