'I'd Normally Shake Your Hand, but I Don't Want to Get a Contact High'

Jacob Sullum | March 13, 2008

In the second installment of his 35,000-part series "Better Know a Lobby," Stephen Colbert sits down with the Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann "in his opium den."

Comments

Sman|3.13.08 @ 12:34PM|#

Link is down. And that was harsh Comedy Central :o

The Wine Commonsewer|3.13.08 @ 12:36PM|#

Link is not down, coffee has been splattered all over the monitor. I'm not beating Uncle Sam out of tax money because I'm LOL at Colbert's clip.

dhex|3.13.08 @ 12:40PM|#

i must register a dissent - colbert is just not funny.

caveat: i don't watch fox news so i don't get what he's parodying.

x,y|3.13.08 @ 12:44PM|#

Colbert not funny? Are you HIGH?

Episiarch|3.13.08 @ 12:48PM|#

Clearly if he was high he would find Colbert funny.

highnumber|3.13.08 @ 1:05PM|#

All right, Acid Damage McGee, arbit our taste for us. What is funny?

Dane Cook|3.13.08 @ 1:19PM|#

I think Colbert is funny.

The Wine Commonsewer|3.13.08 @ 1:23PM|#

I don't usually think Colbert is funny, but this time, he is.

I've learned over the years, however, that the mainstream often does not share my sense of humor. Or maybe it's the other way around.

I don't watch Fox News either but I still thought it was funny.

ce|3.13.08 @ 1:33PM|#

That was somewhat funny, and I'm not a fan of Colbert (talented, but overrated).

The lava lamp was a nice touch.

Taktix®|3.13.08 @ 1:45PM|#

He is I find Colbert to be funny in this clip because the ridiculous arguments he's making in jest (give Eskimos drugs so they harpoon their kids, etc.) are solid parodies of the real arguments for keeping the Drug War going.

Now granted, he is only funny from time to time, but I think he hit it on the mark here, especially with the bit about being on a variety of drugs early on.

I'll wager more people have died from cough syrup overdose than pot overdose, because the latter figure is Zero.

|3.13.08 @ 1:46PM|#

I don't think that is funny either.

this one is funny: Chris Rock on drugs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0J_4gsgCV8


I actually see real human suffering and tragedy involved in the drug war. CIA traffics crack cocaine into the neighborhood, gets lots of the inner city hooked on a new drug. Families break up then the government sends in agents to arrest thousands of the people who starting getting hooked as a result of their efforts. CIA makes tons of money(litereally) trafricking drugs and DEA, FBI and prison industrial complex make billions off of increased funding. Taxpayers get screwed, serious illiterate poverty increases and violent inner city drug crime ensues. Then Colbert tries to make light of the situation calling people who are agaisnt the drug war "ganja army" or asking them to roll a joint.

Does anyone here dispute that the CIA traffics large amounts of drugs into this country?

crank|3.13.08 @ 1:49PM|#

Does anyone here dispute that the CIA traffics large amounts of drugs into this country?

yes

Wow|3.13.08 @ 1:51PM|#

Gabe,

You are a scold with no sense of humor. I look forward to your next appearance on a thread, perhaps wondering how anyone can laugh about the holocaust, or lyme disease...

Episiarch|3.13.08 @ 1:51PM|#

Whoa, I just realized that some of you may not realize that Colbert's character is complete and total satire, modeled after Bill O'Reilly.

Everything that comes out of Colbert's mouth is a joke, but often reflects on the truth in an interesting way. That's why he's good.

|3.13.08 @ 2:22PM|#

I'm quickly being pushed into redundancy

|3.13.08 @ 3:29PM|#

Epi,

Perhaps it would be more clear if the cinematography were more similar. The only time when Colbert has vaguely the same close-up as O'Reilly is when he's doing "The Word".

I think Colbert is brilliant, but not quite the polar opposite of Jon Stewart.

|3.13.08 @ 3:33PM|#

Ex-DEA Head Admits CIA Imported Cocaine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR8s-mIj9BM

do you know about the Gary Webb murder/suicide?...he comes out with credible evidence taht the CIA is importing massive amounts of drugs and gets killed. Look it up.

I guess the CIA plane filled with cocaine that crashed in September was just a hoax?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h96a5zTfeuE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ0EVf_AFM0

http://www.narconews.com/Issue51/article3031.html


so forgive me for being humourless about drug smugglers and propaganda artists running the country but it ain't funny to me. I understadn taht Colbert is supposed to be a parody of Bill Oreilly....but how is asking the anti-drug war guy to roll a joint for him a parody? Bill O'Reilly doesn't do that and it makes a the anti-drug war guy visibly uncomfortable(it is kinda rude).

|3.13.08 @ 3:38PM|#

I could laugh about the drug war if your really ridiculing the government or William Bennet or a drug czar or a limousine liberal who pretends to like blacks but is in favor of locking up 1 million of them.

However, if you take a earnest Harvard PHD who has dedicated his career to fighting the drug war and then just try to make him uncomfortable with ridiculous statements I don't laugh very much.

|3.13.08 @ 3:40PM|#

Ex-LA narcotics detective confronts CIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t3pl5Wxgyg&feature=related

|3.13.08 @ 3:52PM|#

I guess we are supposed to beleive that the CIA had a huge moral turn around after Vietnam and after the drug smuggling in the 80's and that since they found jesus they decided they wouldn't fund black ops with the drug trade anymore? let me guess you, also have a lot of hope invested in Obama?

|3.13.08 @ 4:57PM|#

"I could laugh about the drug war if your really ridiculing the government or William Bennet or a drug czar or a limousine liberal who pretends to like blacks but is in favor of locking up 1 million of them."

Gabe;

The War on Some Drugs is the most serious and dangerous threat to our liberties.

/Asset forfeiture
//Drug testing
///Federal (taxes) funds for local LEOs to fight drugs
////Militarization of city and county LEOs
/////No knock raids and abuses and deaths of innocent people
/////Corruption in the LEO community
etc. etc.

TallDave|3.13.08 @ 5:03PM|#

Didn't we used to have a 4th Amendment? What happened to that, anyway?

|3.13.08 @ 5:05PM|#

I'm quickly being pushed into redundancy

Stay off my turf, asshole.

And stay off my turf, asshole.

|3.13.08 @ 5:39PM|#

Actually, Colbert is not a parody of the fox talking headmen. I live near him, and I talked to him when I was walking, and he told me that he does actually believe the things he says, but not for the silly reasons he gives. He throws in a legitimate reason here and there during these argument sessions, and the silliness gets people to lower their guard, and then they hear an actual argument and are more open to it. So the joke is on the people who are like, 'PARODY!' Straight from the horse's mouth.

|3.13.08 @ 6:03PM|#

Purpledicular,

That is a great handle, err, "Name" you've got there.

Famous Mortimer|3.13.08 @ 7:21PM|#

I always use Colbert as a litmust test for detecting a banal sense of humor. You know, kind of like the Astrology test for females when dating.

People who don't find Colbert funny are usually terrible with word play, find his cartoonish impersonation of a Right Wing pundit offensive, or find intelligent, but underused devices such as irony, and paradox too Goddamn "cosmopolitan" too enjoy.

Now, if you would like to remind everyone that Jon Stewart is a hack, and that Colbert made The Daily Show what it was before it jumped the shark, then I'm right beside you.

Colbert's involvement in "Strangers With Candy" alone makes him worthy of sainthood, and its equivalents.

highnumber|3.13.08 @ 11:44PM|#

Colbert's involvement in "Strangers With Candy" alone makes him worthy of sainthood, and its equivalents.

QFMFT!

phil d|3.14.08 @ 7:05AM|#

while i don't think he (colbert) was doing anything for the fight against the drug war with this interview, his audience isn't exactly the type that needs to be swayed into supporting its abolition. the people that need to hear this professor's message are watching the 2nd half of o'reilly while colbert is on.

dhex|3.14.08 @ 10:34AM|#

this is acid damage mcgee here reminding you that i am that which is:

Whoa, I just realized that some of you may not realize that Colbert's character is complete and total satire, modeled after Bill O'Reilly.

no, i do know that. i just don't get the point of parodying a self-parody. i think all told i've probably laughed at o'reilly (not with, at) more than i'd ever laugh at anything on comedy central. (drawn together aside)

also: daily show? not funny. never was. raised a whole generation of idiots who get all their information from one smug-producing source. thanks a lot, guys.

funny? spitzer. beyond spitzer? me. beyond me? the void.

the void is funny.

People who don't find Colbert funny are usually terrible with word play, find his cartoonish impersonation of a Right Wing pundit offensive, or find intelligent, but underused devices such as irony, and paradox too Goddamn "cosmopolitan" too enjoy.

dude, i'm so fucking cosmopolitan i suck dick and drink lattes while driving a eco-friendly hybrid over white working class conservatives from kentucky while reading ulysses and shitting on a picture of jesus.

(or something like that)

sidenote: assassinating gary webb years and years after his biggest work hits seems sort of horse left, barn closed = fail to me.

|3.14.08 @ 4:50PM|#

I'm cosmo too some of my best friends are gay...I just don't think the federal reserve is "protecting us from panics"....nor does it stabilize the currency...nor does it prevent deeper recessions...it is welfare for the rich.

Famous Mortimer|3.14.08 @ 9:40PM|#

"dude, i'm so fucking cosmopolitan i suck dick and drink lattes while driving a eco-friendly hybrid over white working class conservatives from kentucky while reading ulysses and shitting on a picture of jesus."

Well, maybe that's the problem. You're so cosmopolitan that you're slowing morphing into a nialist. Trust me, I've had a dance with the cynical mistress many times before. Hey, that's why we come here.

However, you've plead your case well.

All charges are dismissed.