August 13, 2012 — fun.

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The Colbert Report Episode GuideEPISODE NUMBER: 8137 (August 13, 2012)
GUESTS: fun.
EXCLUSIVES: “We Are Young” | “Carry On”
SEGMENTS:: StePhest Colbchella ‘012 - Welcome to Rocktaugustfest | Mitt Romney’s Bold Running Mate Pick | StePhest Colbchella ‘012 - fun. | StePhest Colbchella ‘012 - fun. - “Some Nights” | Signoff - T-Mobile Goodnight
SUIT REPORT: Admiralty Uniform | Navy Blazer with brass buttons White shirt | White pants | Yellow Ascot
VIDEOS: Monday, August 13, 2012

Tonight’s episode revealed what a beautiful concert event “Rocktaugustfest” turned out to be. The audience’s energy and excitement was palpable. A tip of the hat is richly deserved to Antonia Xereas in costuming - I loved the “HMS Pinafore” get up as Jon Stewart called it, and the in studio look also rocked on Stephen. Every aspect of production, from the impressive concert layout on the Intrepid to the redesigned set and in-studio pieces, were of top-rate quality. I am sure Stephen was pleased to see his vision of this concert fest so beautifully realized.

Beautiful views of the New York skyline from the ship.

In studio, Stephen managed to cover the Paul Ryan pick in hilarious fashion. We then departed from the real world of politics once again to music and the fun. interview. I think more TCR interviews should take place in uncomfortably small spaces - I’d like to see Paul Krugman parse the economic figures in a ship’s barracks.

And a lot of music, of course. fun. has some catchy stuff. What did you like? Be sure to go to colbertnation.com to get in all the exclusive content.

And that close. OMG. Stephen actually made it look comfortable to be draped on the audience.

What did you think of episode? Rock on.

StePhest Colbchella ‘012 - Welcome to Rocktaugustfest

  • Are you ready to rock out… with your nothing out- because this is a family friendly venue promoting traditional rock values.
  • Excuse me, I have to correct course here. (turns Captain’s wheel)
  • We are floating on the Hudson River, and I don’t know whether you heard the news this morning, but it has been announced that the city of Territown, NY just upstream, is releasing 2 million gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River, yes, I know it’s exciting. The only time there has been this much raw sewage at a music festival is at every music festival.
  • You like my tassels! You like my tassels baby? You like that? Thank you. Powwww. (CN’s note: Down, fangirls and/or boys! Down!)
  • Yes nothing says rock ‘n roll like corporate endorsement. Which brings us to this week’s headlining sponsor: Pepsi. Pepsi (as it explodes), which is evidently very happy to see you- you know their motto, “Pepsi: put it in your mouth.” And I have to say, it is the only place I would want to put it.
  • Jon Stewart: I am sorry to interrupt your performance of HMS Pinafore-
  • Stephen: How are you?
  • Jon: I believe we were in the middle of something, my friend?
  • Stephen: Oh right, right.
  • Stephen: Jon, can we do this later, I have people over right now.

  • Stephen: I will see you in hell-
  • Jon: I probably will. Say hi to The Beatles for me.
  • Stephen: Jon Stewart everybody, don’t worry, we’ve got 4 more pegs before we sink.
  • Of course, all this week I will be joined by a legendary broadcaster, my dear friend of 48 years, Mr. Stephen Colbert, there he is, up in the window, wave to him everybody!

HMS TCR Studio: The set has a great ship design this week.

Mitt Romney’s Bold Running Mate Pick

“What a relief, because for nine months now, I thought I was going to have to vote for Mitt Romney.”

A Triple Non-threat: “So daring. I mean white, Christian, and male? That’s a triple not threatening to me.”

  • Oh yes, the young ones love him. He’s the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, or as the kids call it, “The Budge.”
  • I mean this dude wants to cut government entizzlements.
  • And of course like all Republican VP picks, he looks exactly like Tina Fey. I cannot wait to see SNL this fall.
  • See the kids are down with Ryan’s Budge, and how dope it is that it eliminates the capital gains tax, which means that under the Ryan plan, Romney would pay a tax rate of 0.82%.

“And we will need that defense spending to protect ourselves from the gangs of marauding seniors, pillaging for Lipitor.”

  • Now Ryan’s plan replaces Medicare with a voucher program, and I believe Social Security becomes a lottery, which will save the government tons of money, because if your monthly check has a black dot, we stone you to death.

“Here they are on the campaign trail together, wearing plaid shirts together, white shirts, and here they are wearing lycra.”

  • It’s tough news to break to a potential running mate [that he wasn’t picked], but Mitt’s a leader, so he had his son do it.

“They should be honored. I believe Chris Christie got a call from Rafalca. “

  • And Governor Bobby Jindal found out…from me just now. So sorry, Governor.

Interview

  • Stephen: Hey you guys are blowing up this summer - you’re it on a stick. Isn’t that right?
  • Nate Ruess: Yeah, we heard that you weren’t going to have us because we were too boring.
  • Jack Antonoff: “Squeaky clean,” is the term I heard.
  • Stephen: Can I ask you a question about squeaky clean? I’ve noticed from my vantage point that 2 of you guys aren’t wearing socks.
  • Nate Ruess: No, I don’t wear socks or underwear.
  • Stephen: Okay, then you’ve just the dispelled the “squeaky clean” image.
  • Stephen: Can I ask you about your name?
  • Nate Ruess: No, actually we’ve been asked that too many times.
  • Stephen: Really?
  • Jack Antonoff: It’s not a good story, it’s squeaky clean.
  • Stephen: But why a period? Why not a question mark?
  • Jack Antonoff: …we wanted to name our band fun…and we googled it, and we got porn, go-karts-
  • Stephen: And go-kart porn, obviously.
  • Jack Antonoff: -a couple months later this Swedish death metal band…called and said, “we’re fun- change it, ” and that’s where the period came from.
  • Stephen: Hey you guys, hey you guys, now I know why you didn’t want to talk about it, because this is super boring.
  • Stephen: One of your songs was used in a Super Bowl ad. Aren’t you done now? Isn’t that it? Haven’t you peaked as artists? Why go on?
  • Nate: That’s a good question, I’d like to think that we’ve probably…I mean, we’re doing this right now, it seems a little desperate, doesn’t it?
  • Stephen: It does. None of this is being broadcast. This is just for my own private fetish video collection. I tape my balls to my taint and I watch videos that never get broadcast.
  • Stephen: Hey you know that song “We Are Young”? Do you guys ever sing that song? That’s great, we are young, aren’t we? I love that song because of how young…I am.

Performance: “Some Nights”

Signoff - T-Mobile Goodnight

  • lockhart43

    Studio Stephen wore a captain’s hat, open collar, and ascot (all with perfect hair - it was almost too much to take), interviewed fun. (who were hilarious) on what was essentially a tiny bunkbed, and fun. rocked the boat as the new opening phrase suggested they would. This episode was awesome!

    How great it must have been in that sign-off to crowd-surf on the deck of the Intrepid with your name in lights. Stephen has the best job on the planet.

  • llama

    That ending with everyone holding him up, made me very jealous. However, I’m not bitter. It was a great experience. Loved Jon’s appearance. They should make a new version of Battleship. “Gigantic Battleship”.
    I saw me in the audience, too. I was wearing my red CN hat so it may be easy to tell where I am. I’m not the one with the Santa hat, I’m further back from that guy. 🙂

  • Katt

    Seriously!! Our car doesn’t have a cup holder but his ships wheel comes with a Pepsi holder. Why is life so unfair?

    I really don’t like fun. They didn’t have nice things to say about Stephen and the show in an interview last week, but I thought once they got the pre-show speech they might change their tune. Guess not. At least we got some great lines and a little TMI from Stephen amidst their reluctance to answer questions properly. Personally I would have thrown the leader singer and his hatred of socks overboard, but hey that’s just me.

    • Erika

      What interview was that? I can’t imagine anyone (outside of the fox news realm) saying anything bad about Stephen and the show. I’m not a very big fan of their music…. in fact they are the leading contenders right now of me going “uhhhH!’ and changing the channel when a song of theirs comes on….. but I thought they’d have a better sense of humor. It seemed like they did in the interview, was the annoyance real? I thought it was faked for the “fun” of it.

      • CN Helper

        I don’t think they were annoyed. I think they were thrilled beyond belief to be chosen for Rocktaugustfest but too hep to show it.

  • Gail

    I’m so bad. I paid no attention to fun. All I noticed was Stephen’s profile while he was lying on the bunkbed…..

  • fan girl 40

    I didn’t see lastnights tcr at the beginning I turned it on later when he was interviewing fun, in my opinion, i thought the music was sort of boring but then again I have never heard of fun.

    I am not really a fan of Stephen’s tmi’s.

  • llama

    among all the bands, fun. was the most fun, music wise, but I don’t know about them much outside of just hearing their songs on the radio. I guess if the arrogance was real, they don’t really live up to their name do they?

    They cut out some stuff. I think they did more with Grandmaster Flash. Or maybe I’m getting my nights mixed up. I guess they had to make time for the Ryan story. Also, the song sounded way different on TV. I think they were playing a track at the concert because I remember thinking it almost sounded so much like the studio version that I wondered if they were lip synching. However, it was definitely live.

  • jentaps

    I’m surprised that some of you didn’t like fun.! I’m “old”, and have never heard of them, but I loved the interview, and the song. I thought it was pretty catchy. “It had a good beat, and it’s easy to dance to, I’ll give it a 72.” 🙂 (Yeah, I’m that old).
    Stephen was brilliant, as usual. It was great to see him w/ Jon, since we never get a toss anymore. I totally thought of the prop guy when he wheeled out that giant peg for Battleship. haha Obviously, the prop guy has been really busy with this concert and the set at the studio.
    Lovng RocktAugustFest. How I wish I could have been there!

    • CN Helper

      I liked the interview and song as well. I write my own music, and I hoping to perform it sometime in the future. So I believe that musicians are like Republicans, in that we should never speak ill of one another. I appreciate the fact that Stephen is trying to promote unique music talent, and isn’t worried about big names.

  • Roseha

    Just wanted to say quickly that I’ve been enjoying these shows all week, but especially loved it when Jon called Stephen “Captain Spaulding”! That appearance was hilarious. I thought fun. were just goofing with pretending to be uncooperative, anyway I didn’t like the number when it started out sounding all electronic but when they got more natural sounding I did like it.

    Only Stephen would have Pete Seeger and Grandmaster Flash on on successive weeks. It would be great if Mr. Flash (as the New York Times used to refer to rockers sometimes) would do his still classic “White Lines” anti-coke song. (Not anti-coke as in Pepsi though!)