I find it frightening that they're capitalizing on the fact that's he's retarded and can't even speak his first language properly.

Lame lame lame. I guess that's all we could expect from that setup. Bush himself is pretty stiff here. I'm sure that's because his own brand of humor involves NO self-deprecation whatsoever. The largely repunican audience sure gobbled it up.

I have to say, I think that was much funnier than Colbert's bit. Poking fun at yourself is always more rewarding, laughs-wise, than poking fun at someone else. I dislike this President as much as the next 67%, but I thought this segment showed good humor and cheer.

I thought that this was a bit funnier than Colbert's bit. I like the fact that Colbert got his shots in, but at some points Colbert's act becomes: "Hey Bush, here's me as one of your supporters, 'Duh, duh, duh.'"

The funny thing about the Colbert report isn't just that he's a parody of Bill O'Reilly, but that he has his own funny quirks and bits of silliness. Apparently that act doesn't play very well on the road.

Oh, and this wasn't a mostly Republican audience. As always it's mainly the media with some other VIPs thrown in.

As always it's mainly the media with some other VIPs thrown in.

In other words, a mostly Republican audience.

And don't give me that "liberal media" bull-shtick, not after 6 years of sucking up to Bush and the GOP.

Bush saying he survived the White House shake up was enjoyful I thought, but the "nuclear" bit was sad. His grin after "intersexual conduct" was cringing. It is good to see ~SOME~ self-depricating humor from Bush, even if it is a little stiff.

But apparently he forgot his last line about "the importance of being able to laugh" when Stephen came on.

These comments are so predictable. Colbert, automatically funny; Bush, automatically not. It was well written self-depreciating humour.

It's pretty frightening, but seeing Bush joking about the way he talks reminds me of this former skijumper Matti Nykänen, who has since his prime been mostly known as a heavy drinker, lousy singer and male stripper with quotes like these:

"The question sounds like a question."

"The odds are fifty-sixty."

"Tomorrow is always future."

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matti_Nykänen

While I still do not like the man, I did find a small bit of respect for him with this bit, and even with the Colbert part. Even though he probably was thinking, "I'm going to kill this man!", he did still endure it.

I guess you could aliken it to having respect for Hitler as an orater [hah, yaaa, another Hilter reference, ;)] but it is always good to actually be able to say something good about a person, no matter who they are.

Wow, that sounded incredibly pathetic.

Anywho, it still did take some balls to do that whole setup, and Bush does seem to have an ok sense of humour.

I mean geez, look at his whole presidency; it is just one big joke!

Bush now recognizes that Cheney and the neocons used him to invade Iraq. He knows, because he is not dumb. Ignorant yes, but not dumb.

At the most momentous time in America's history, Mr. Bush made the wrong decision. And we must all live with it. In the end, while the responsibility is his, the blame should be placed with the puppetmaster and not the puppet:

Cheney, Perle, and Wolfowitz

I thought it was well calculated. If people are laughing at him, if he has the grace to appear and openly made fun of, how can you hate him? I thought that with the Colbert bit this night was completely negative for him, but this it seems shows that he does have a bit of the fabled "charisma" people are always talking about. I wonder how this will turn out in the polls. It seems as though most people have accepted he's a failure, and despite all the facts and ridicule Colbert threw his way I think that America will be forgiving and stupid. Unless the Colbert bit sticks in their memory better than this one. Or maybe it will have no effect at all. I'm sure it doesn't matter either way, as he isn't running again. Even the republicans I know are turning on him, but for rather different and sickening reasons. Not that they are representative of the whole, but they support nuclear action, and call Bush weak because he hasn't yet done it. Well, we've yet to see how this all will play out, and we still have almost another 3 years to go.

Why don't they laugh like that when he screws up his normal speeches?

Oh damn. It appears from what I am reading elsewhere that the media in general is downplaying Colbert and making the Preznit look better. Still doesn't change much, but it should prove that the media is not liberal. Oh, wait the proof has been there for years, and still few believe it. So that won't change anything either. Hmm... damn. Wait a second... if we get a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress that isn't corporatist, we could theoretically impeach him. Or, I should say "hypothetically?" Actually I think both of those words are wrong, because a non-corporatist majority will never happen, so Bush gets away scot-free. Damnitall!

Where it's getting annoying is: Bush is obviously capable of delivering all his punchlines perfectly - but can't care to say three coherent sentences in a row about policy.

Heheh. But this is funny - and the other thing is working, no..? What's the use of self deprecating humour if that's all it ever will be?

Yesterday I saw Clinton doing his Aids summit on CNN. What a difference...

I thought both of the clips were funny but the Bush clip would have been more interesting, surprising, and funny, had he made his lame policies part of the humour instead of just his inability to deal with English at at even a first year college level.

But what can you expect from a man with an MBA from Harvard who never wrote a major paper?

The biggest, most obvious, but least humourous joke from Bush, was at the very end. "I love America" "I love the troops."

Coming from the president who has killed so many, destroyed so much both at home and abroad, and cared so little, that was a just a sick joke.

I just couldn't watch that. It was too disgusting.

I liked this one almost as much as the Colbert segment, for obvious different reasons. still funny, this one was just cure. It's kinda sad, though: Bush might make a fun guy to have at your BBQ, but he's an embarrassment as a leader.

Bush could at least enjoy himself during this wsegment. He may have invited Steve Bridges, but no WAY could he have invited Colbert...unless he thinks the Colbert Report is for real. He couldn't be that dumb....oh, yeah, never mind.

I don't know what to think of this. It was funny, but not that funny. Kind of frightening, really.

I am with most of the people that thought this segment was a piece of crap, and no, it was not better than Colbert's bit.

John Grillo summed it up best: "I just couldn't watch that. It was too disgusting."

Bush seems like the perfect leader for this country that is scared shitless of intellectuals. Adam Sandler should run in 2008. Bill Clinton was fairly brilliant, quick-witted, and enormously articulate and look what we let happen to him.

P.S. This was difficult to watch but it was also very funny at times.

Thomas said //"The biggest, most obvious, but least humourous joke from Bush, was at the very end. "I love America" "I love the troops."

Coming from the president who has killed so many, destroyed so much both at home and abroad, and cared so little, that was a just a sick joke."//

Right. "The troops" should NOT be used in a joke. (Sorry for use of caps, but I really felt that). Those young men are dying and getting injured and families are suffering from the loss of their son, daughter, husband, wife, brother.... This comedy from Bush made me want to puke. I recently read an article about a woman who was pregnant and her husband was returned to her dead. I don't think she would have appreciated this at all. The young people in Iraq who are being forced to risk their lives should be treated with nothing less than with a thoughtful and solemn attitude. So many are coming home dead or without limbs. Does Bush really give a damn? Guess not.

To make this Cobert vs Bush comedy challenge really fair, we have to compare how much blood is on each comediens hands before they began.

I agree completely with Iain. Why couldn't I laugh at Bush or even his comedic clone? Because murderers aren't funny.

I also didn't laugh that much at Colbert, but I admired what he did more than anything I've ever seen on his show or when he was on Stewart's show. Why? Because I could feel the unflinching accusation in his message (both to Bush and to the assembled media dogs). Colbert was saying, "you are exposed--all of you--for the hypocrites and scoundrels that you are." I don't think I'm overstating anything a bit when I say that this was one of the great moments in American political rhetoric. I saw it just after coming home from the protest march in NYC, and boy did it hit home. By the time it was over I was ready to start printing "Colbert 2008" banners.

I agree completely with Iain. Why couldn't I laugh at Bush or even his comedic clone? Because murderers aren't funny.

I also didn't laugh that much at Colbert, but I admired what he did more than anything I've ever seen on his show or when he was on Stewart's show. Why? Because I could feel the unflinching accusation in his message (both to Bush and to the assembled media dogs). Colbert was saying, "you are exposed--all of you--for the hypocrites and scoundrels that you are." I don't think I'm overstating anything a bit when I say that this was one of the great moments in American political rhetoric. I saw it just after coming home from the protest march in NYC, and boy did it hit home. By the time it was over I was ready to start printing "Colbert 2008" banners.

Norm and everyone else: I'm sorry. I got DNS 500 errors the first few times I tried to post that last--really. I waited half an hour and didn't see anything so I did it again, and now I see that they all came up!

I work in IT and see stuff like this all the time, but that's for corporate America! I don't like it so much when it happens in a great place like this.

One of the more revealing aspects of the Bush clip, is that much of the humour was based on the great gap between what he thinks and what he says. He thinks it's funny.

Anyone have a download fo this? The YouTube link says it was taken down for copyright reasons....

Thanks

Well y'all can say whatever you want, but for someone to go thru with this, well this takes some cojones. He mightve made some mistakes but hell he's funny and brave. And you know what? I'm actually proud he's our president!

alex, I find the performance respectable until he had to throw in the part about the troops, which showed how self-serving the while brownie act was.

You support the troops? You make sure they get the armour and the numbers to get the job done. And you don't send them to die for your own beliefs