Becky O'Malley: 'Telling the Emperor he's naked'

"We've all heard the story of the Emperor's New Clothes when we were growing up. It took a little boy to reveal that the "finely woven invisible suit" that the emperor thought he was wearing didn't exist. Shakespeare's plays are full of fools who use their position to tell powerful people what's going on with impunity. It's a time-honored technique, and the point is not the comedy but the truth-telling. Colbert's pose as an effete, foolish and powerless newsie was the perfect way to position himself to tell Bush, his lying entourage and his media syncophants, metaphorically of course, that they'd come to dinner in their birthday suits. And no, a big blast of rib-splitting Borscht Belt bathroom humor a la Bob Hope or even Al Franken wouldn't have had the same effect. What made Colbert's performance so effective was the high ratio of criticism to comedy, steely rapier thrusts greased by a thin veneer of irony.

Was he rude? Perhaps. Telling the truth is sometimes considered rude. And it's dangerous."


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