Thank you Stephen Colbert.

Thank you for being the bravest, ballsiest, and sharpest satirist in America.

The fantastic Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report (and previously The Daily Show) was a guest speaker at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on the 26th of April. I bet when they booked him they didn't expect him to actually use his on-screen persona!

Once he stood up behind that podium, he just let rip. It was scathing comment after scathing comment. Bush looked pretty pissed off, and several people actually walked out while Stephen was talking. After denying that the administration was rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic when making personnel changes, saying that was a terrible metaphor, he added, "this administration is not sinking, this administration is soaring! If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!"

Most of the mainstream press chose to ignore Colbert in their reports. Was this because of what he said about the President? Or maybe because he also had set his sights on them? He's certainly no fan of Faux.. oh sorry.. Fox News. ["Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president's side, and the vice president's side."] I really don't think the media knew how to react, this probably knocked them completely for six. Too biting? Too much truthiness?

Jon Stewart from The Daily Show on the 1st of May, called Colbert's performance "balls-alicious" and stated that "We've never been prouder of him, but holy shit!".

Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report had this to say three days after the dinner: "FLASH: Colbert averaging just over one million viewers a night (1,077,000], year to date on COMEDY CENTRAL, which is less than FOXNEWS's 6-11pm line-up". Er... a half hour show at 11:30pm gets less viewers than a 5 hour primetime show? Makes sense to me. I think Mr Drudge is just clutching at straws, stunned by Stephen's incredibly devastating attack on the man sitting next to him.

Check out the Full Transcript of Stephen's speech, and read more gems like this:

"I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."

If you'd prefer, you can watch the entire speech (skip to near the end!), including the fantastic lampooning of President Bush by Bush himself and the incredible impressionist Stephen Bridges earlier in the evening, by downloading this torrent.

I would also recommend getting The Daily Show from the 1st of May, so you can hear Jon Stewart's comments for yourself.

Again, I would just like to say... Thank you Stephen Colbert.

Update: You can view Stephen Colbert's speech and Bush's Impersonator over at Google Video, with the full permission of C-SPAN.