OMG–this is an absolute master at the top of his game, explaining the Reinhart/Rogoff mistake, and in the next clip, interviewing the very cool young grad student who discovered it.
As someone who spends his life trying to explain this stuff, I stand in slack-jawed awe at Colbert’s mastery of doing so in ways that are hilarious and informative. He must have an killer team of writers as well.
(BTW, I think that’s an edited version of my graphic from here in there!)
I was absolutely floored by it!
There are a few recent skits I cannot seem to stop watching. That was one, the SNL skits on Hagel and Gun control are two others.
If it weren’t for the laughs, nobody could stand the stench from Washington.
The Reinhart-Rogoff takedown was beautifully set up by that show’s earlier focus on (the media idiocy of) whether Chris Christie was lying about the age at which he used to watch “Scooby-Doo.”
Master of Ridicule
The best response to a disinformation campaign such as the wealthy special interests are waging against the rest of us is ridicule. Disinformation deserves ridicule. No one in comedy today is better at ridicule than Colbert. It is the Jonathan Swift approach. Appear to support something really ridiculous and get the audience to laugh at you (and the disinformation) at the same time. “Hey, everyone is laughing at people who are fooled by the disinformation, so you need to get in on the joke or be a laughing stock yourself.”
I don’t know who had the idea to have Colbert do the WH Correspondence dinner with President Bush, but they certainly must have lost their job.
As for R&R, they banked enough money from their bestseller to put up with a heap of ridicule.