Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Comedian Stephen Colbert was the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Colbert spoke in the persona of the character he played on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, a parody of conservative pundits such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. His performance quickly became an Internet and media sensation.

About Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner in brief

American comedian Stephen Colbert was the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Colbert delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president and the media. Colbert spoke in the persona of the character he played on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, a parody of conservative pundits such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Colbert’s performance quickly became an Internet and media sensation, with many commenting on the political nature of his remarks and the way the event was reported by the media in the way it was reported. He was invited to speak by Mark Smith, the outgoing president of the White House Press Corps Association, but Smith later said he had not seen much of Colbert’s work. The event has featured well-known stand-up comics since 1983, including President Gerald Ford and Chevy Chase making fun of Ford’s alleged clumsiness in 1975, and Ronald Reagan and Rich Little performing together in 1981. More than 2,500 guests attended the event, including First Lady Laura Bush, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, China’s Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, AOL co-founder Steve Case, model and tennis player Anna Kournikova, and actor George Clooney. Colbert gave his after-dinner remarks in front of an audience described by the Associated Press as a “Who’s Who of power and celebrity”. He began by satirizing mass surveillance, joking “If anybody needs anything else at their tables, just speak slowly and clearly into your table numbers.

Someone from the NSA will be right over with a cocktail. ” While many of his jokes were directed at President Bush, he also lampooned the journalists and other figures present at the dinner. He continued his mock defense of Bush’s appearances aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, at the World Trade Center, and at the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. He alluded to outsourcing to China and satirized the traditional Republican opposition to big government by referencing the Iraq War. The last third of the speech is usually backwash backwash, but I wouldn’t drink it usually, usually because I wouldn’t drink it backwash. It is still liquid, two-thirds empty. There’s still some liquid in that glass that is still in my point that is my point of view. It has become a political-cultural touchstone issue of 2006—like whether you drive a hybrid or use the term ‘freedom fries'”. It has a sinking approval rating of 32 percent, but we know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking. We have set up a fabulous government in Iraq, we have a man who has a 32 percent approval rating, but there’s a man we don’t pay attention to. We know that people pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty because the people say it’s half empty… because it’s still half empty.