Monday, February 04, 2008

Theology on Comedy Central

Lately I have been thinking about how someone on the Colbert Report or on the Daily Show can realistically survive an interview. It seems no matter what perspective one comes from, they look like a fool.

If you try and play straight man too much to Colbert's statements, you can end up looking like you are as much of a caricature as his character is on his show. If you try and play along and joke around too much, you look like a panderer at best. If you try and dish back to Colbert what Colbert and Stewart dish out to you, that gets you in trouble as well.

Here we have a couple of examples based on theology and church life. One video is of Bart Ehrman, a theologian who is also an agnostic. Colbert calls him a "atheist without balls" (ht Marko). Then you have Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist pastor who comes across equally as goofy, eventually trying to dish a little back to Colbert.
If you were on Colbert's show, how would you approach the interview?










Addendum

Perhaps one who does this setting best as a Christain leader is Tony Campolo, who was on tonight. Here it is:

2 comments:

reliv4life said...

I found those highly entertaining. Why in the world would I ever be on his show?? :) seriously though, I think you would just have to be light hearted about it, and thick skinned...not a strong suit of mine.

Gretchen said...

O.K. so Chris and I love the Colbert report, and especially the interviews! I actually thought that Rick Warren did pretty good. He seemed to role with it and still stay
on point.

Book Review of Little Prayers for Ordinary Days by Katy Bowser Hutson, Flo Paris Oaks, and Tish Harrison Warren and illustrated by Liita Forsyth

Little Prayers for Ordinary Days by Katie Bowser Hutson, Flo Paris Oakes, and Tish Harrison Warren IVP Kids ISBN 978-1-5140-0039-8 Reviewed ...