Nussbaum: Colbert got in one or two very good hits:
Nussbaum: The bit about "We've paid a price, we've got shows, product lines, and books."
Nussbaum: And also that bit at the end about "They criticize what you say, but they never give you credit for how loud you say it and how long you say it."
Sternbergh: Sure. But in a way, the whole exercise left me kind of deflated.
Nussbaum: Deflated because they didn't genuinely exchange critiques?
Sternbergh: Yes.
Sternbergh: And deflated because it emphasized how impossible it is for the two sides to have a real dialogue
Nussbaum: It's true that the interchange felt kind of freaky and unfunny, so that it was more like a spectacle.
Nussbaum: Although I actually thought the O'Reilly-on-Colbert thing, in contrast, was somewhat funny.
Sternbergh: Really? Which part?
Nussbaum: The 30 percent off thing, which in this mean little way is the perfect way to undercut Bill O'Reilly, although it has nothing to do with his politics.
Nussbaum: The Advent calendar.
Nussbaum: And the weird moment when O'Reilly joked that it was all an act, that he was really a nice guy …
Nussbaum: and Colbert said "If you're an act, then what am I?"
Sternbergh: That was the quote of the night
Sternbergh: The rest, though, was really just O'Reilly looking at himself in a funhouse mirror
Sternbergh: which didn't feel particularly fun.
Nussbaum: And also felt oddly cruel. It's hard to feel sorry for O'Reilly, but it was an uneven battle, because O'Reilly can't really be funny back.
Nussbaum: He could just yell about being French, which made no sense.
Sternbergh: I actually thought he held his own.
Sternbergh: At least on Colbert's show.
Sternbergh: On his own, not so much.
Sternbergh: It reminded me of the Jiminy Glick show
Sternbergh: Jiminy Glick's interviews only worked when the celebrity didn't try to play along
Sternbergh: But O'Reilly was trying to play along
Nussbaum: On the Colbert show, when O'Reilly got his one good line, it was when he said, Oh, we should admit mistakes — it was a mistake to go on this show, I admit that.
Nussbaum: I thought he was actually being somewhat serious. He'd realized it was a dead end and was trying to just get through it.
Sternbergh: And then O'Reilly was being deferential, but not really.
Sternbergh: He was just promoting his book.
Nussbaum: The thing is, in the piece you wrote on Colbert …
Nussbaum: you made a point at how well he can analyze his own humor, what he's doing.
Nussbaum: I wonder if O'Reilly can do that with what he does. I mean, I doubt it, but I'm also kind of curious.
Sternbergh: Colbert the person, not the character, could have a fascinating talk with O'Reilly because he's thought about O'Reilly's appeal so much.
Nussbaum: Has O'Reilly thought about his own appeal?
Nussbaum: Or does he think he's just a truth-teller and a charmer?
Sternbergh: I think O'Reilly lost the plot at some point, but he is also in essence a showman
Sternbergh: I think he knows that.
Sternbergh: He is calculating about his appeal on some level.
Nussbaum: You've actually convinced me this was a lost opportunity.
Sternbergh: I kind of think it was.
Nussbaum: Not to mention the fact that the Borat thing has exhausted me about people refusing to get out of character.
Sternbergh: It was like watching Richard Nixon being interviewed by a Nixon impersonator.
Sternbergh: Which is weird because, alone, Colbert is so much more than just an O'Reilly parody.
Sternbergh: This was like one of those Daily Show interviews during which they have someone they really disagree with, then don't actually ask any hard questions …
Sternbergh: Only worse.
Nussbaum: What did you think about that insane segment where O'Reilly discussed the segment with his two guests?
Sternbergh: The O'Reilly segment with the analysts was bizarre and horrible
Sternbergh: like the rest of his show
Sternbergh: but maybe I'm just cranky.
Nussbaum: I know! It was nuts! But yeah, dude, the whole thing depressed you.
Nussbaum: Whereas I honestly enjoyed it in this perverse way.
Sternbergh: Not depressed.
Sternbergh: But not impressed either.
Nussbaum: It was more like a sport than anything else.
Sternbergh: It was a good stunt in theory
Sternbergh: If not in practice.
Sternbergh: Now O'Reilly can retreat to his Fox hole and Colbert can retreat to Comedy Central, and neither audience will ever have to try and understand the other one.
Nussbaum: The analysis segment is what I was the most fascinated by.
Nussbaum: Because I don't know if Goldberg and that professor woman were being disingenuous …
Nussbaum: but they were actually acting like Colbert and Stewart's whole appeal is that they are somehow "mean smart-asses" and thus "hip."
Nussbaum: They deliberately ignored the entire content of the satire itself.
Nussbaum: Also, I was like, WTF are they talking about, comedy used to be nice? The Marx Brothers? Hello?
Sternbergh: What really fascinates me is the prospect of a right-wing Jon Stewart, as Goldberg suggested
Sternbergh: and as Fox is threatening to unleash.
Sternbergh: I am genuinely curious to see if it's possible.
Nussbaum: Well, Dennis Miller is a right-wing Stewart.
Nussbaum: And he did used to be very funny, actually.
Sternbergh: Yes, he used to be.
Sternbergh: When he was joking about Mumenschanz.
Sternbergh: (There is no way I spelled that correctly.)
Nussbaum: I miss them!
Sternbergh: Don't we all?
Nussbaum: Whatever happened to toilet-paper humor and good-natured mime?
Sternbergh: The mimes lost the culture wars.