Did Stephen Colbert Jump The Shark?



"My, What big shoes you have." The better to jump the shark! (image via nydailynews)

Okay, we get that Stephen Colbert's Holiday Special exists in a realm of irony meant to spoof cheesy, homespun holiday specials based in log cabins smelling of mulled cider with windows fogged beast baking in the old-style oven. We get that. But a Walton's vibe, a John denver vibe, does not a memorable holiday classic make. And we also get that John Legend's spicy nutmeg riff (see below) was mildly amusing, as were those loving -- though perhaps overdone -- close-ups lingering over the holiday rack. We cannot fail to note, though, that Legend wore his sunglasses throughout his performance -- suggesting a certain anonymity with regards to his participation in this .. project (aka: appearance fee collection spot):



But the show kind of seriously sucked, and if you have any sense of taste you will have to agree with me here.

And, worse, the sheer lack of effort -- and constant *ironic* shilling of the DVD ($12.99!)-- made the whole show seem more like a poorly executed plan devised to part the viewer from his or her cold-hard holiday bonus cash than any actual content. The special just fell flat. In fact, we would hazard to guess that there was little -- if no -- actual script (aside from the clearly dubbed musical numbers) to the damn thing. The "special" seemed almost entirely improvisational, calculated only to eat up as much time as possible so as to reach, exhausted, that 22-minute finish line where everyone could fetch their robust appearance fees and, reinvigorated, briskly sprint away from the unholy stink.

Even Jon Stewart, who made an appearance (how much did they pay him) in defense of Hanukkah, looked as unhappy to be there as Tina Fey did during those last Sarah Palin appearances where she had to look backwards to SNL ("I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5, so if anyone could help me be done playing her on Nov. 5, that would be good for me”).

With the exception of Legend and, maybe, Feist, it wasn't memorable. Bah humbug!

Entertainment Weekly, the once-great weekly, continuing on its downward spiral, loved the special. Actually so many media outlets "loved" this show that one wonders if we have all fallen into a vortex of unquestioning Colbert-Stewart love, unable to distinguish the comedic wheat from the chaff.

Have they no shame?

Come on, admit it, it sucked (and not in an ironic way)...



sell those DVDs! (image via amazon)