Everyone's A Critic. Thank God.

Stephen Colbert’s relentless standup at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner would have gone unremarked, if not for the power of the internets. This is understandable. When you shit on everyone in the room, they tend not to run outside and brag about it. And given that the shit-sandwich was cut in half and shared in equal measure between the president and the press, it’s no wonder that press coverage has been, well, muted. On the other hand, I can’t exactly figure out why Wonkette has taken a contrarian, clucking pass, while their slightly older, slightly snarkier New York counterparts at Gawker have found a way to squeeze more humor from the sitch while acknowledging the reality-based community and its silly preoccupation with, y’ know, televised tragedy and comedy. I liked Priesmeyer’s rundown–and congrats to her for being one of the first to post at the outset of a long silence. Though I think it slightly overstates the case, it obviously hit the mark for dozens of appreciative commentors. Woolcott’s is a more measured take, but also recognizes the brilliance and the courage of Colbert’s monologue. It was not exactly a hard rain to clean the streets of all that, um, taint. But it was definitely a soaking sprinkle. Then too, you can always judge the success of these things by the persisting swagger in the tone of the ignorant and the mendacious, who are protesting much too loudly that Colbert was a “flop.” They would better flatter themselves by merely keeping their mouths clamped down in that patriotic rictus we’ve come to love so much.