October 3, 2013 — David Finkel

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The Colbert Report episode guide EPISODE NUMBER: 10004 (October 3, 2013)
GUEST: David Finkel
SPECIAL GUESTS: Smokey the Bear | Mandy Patinkin | Audra McDonald
WRITER CAMEO: Jay Katsir (as a Panda)
SEGMENTS: Government Shutdown Day Three | The 2013 Government Shutdown Wedding of the Century Pt. 1 | The 2013 Government Shutdown Wedding of the Century Pt. 2 | Sign Off - Audra McDonald’s Availability
SUIT REPORT: Navy suit | White Shirt | Maroon & Navy Striped tie | Red Robe
VIDEOS: Thursday, October 3, 2013

Wait…did Stephen just marry a couple on The Colbert Report?! *snaps fingers in front of face* A shutdown surprise!

“Nation, do you believe that love is bigger than this shutdown?”

One of the nicest things about Stephen Colbert is that even in dark moments, he finds the silver lining and shares it with us all. In this case, he WAS the silver lining, letting us know that he was an ordained wedding minister, and was prepared to make an extremely unforgettable experience happen for two unfortunate young people affected by the government shutdown.

According to a Washington Post article on the lucky bride and groom, MaiLien Le and Mike Cassesso, Stephen couldn’t have been more intuitive. It turns out that Ms. Le is a huge Colbert fangirl, and Cassesso incidentally an equally huge Mandy Patinkin fan due to his love of The Princess Bride. “Wove, twue wove…” So it seems the rather unorthodox manner of the event suited them both equally well.

It would be nice to ask the happy couple, who are also having another ceremony performed on Saturday, which marriage ceremony felt more like getting married: Stephen’s version, or (the more than likely) official version. I think any fangirl and/or boy would love the opportunity to be married by our fearless host. In any event, thank you Stephen for cheering us up through this awful week and reminding us that there is still plenty to laugh and love about in the midst of all of this political turmoil. And for turning a potentially nightmarish wedding scenario into something far more meaningful and special for a deserving couple, in touchingly sincere fashion.

Totally side note: this whole episode gave me flashbacks of this.

What did you guys think of the “shutdown wedding” with all its trimmings and the rest of the episode? Comment away.

Government Shutdown Day Three

  • Republicans don’t want to shut the government down, they want to end this stalemate and get back to the important work of crippling the government.
  • [Obama] will not negotiate? When did that start? Apparently, Obamacare covers ball transplants.
  • There you have it, Mr. President. A clear signal of what Obama needs to offer: something.

The 2013 Government Shutdown Wedding of the Century Pt. 1

  • I feel bad for Mike and MaiLien. Their story is causing a shutdown in here. (points to heart)
  • I promised you on night one of the shutdown that as leader of the Colbert Nation and Erlord of the Afterscape, I would provide all cancelled government services. That includes weddings. I don’t usually advertise this folks, but I am actually an ordained minister of the American Marriage Ministries. This is the most prestigious ministry certification which you can get online while also on the toilet.

“Well then, the Nation has spoken. Jimmy, we’re having a wedding!”

  • Your first date was at the Jefferson Memorial? Alright, alright, big spender.

The bridesmaids seem underwhelmed by Stephen the Stripper.

Christopher, the ring bearer, is all kinds of heaps of adorable.

Astonishment when the bride doesn’t show….

Mike the Groom takes solace in Smokey the Bear.

The 2013 Government Shutdown Wedding of the Century Pt. 2

Stephen, like Superman, rushes to save the day.

One of the funniest moments of the wedding occurs when Stephen confronts the bride, MaiLien:

“Don’t ruin this day for me. This is my special day. I have been dieting for like 15 minutes. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Listen. It’s going to be fine. You’re gonna be great. You look lovely. But it doesn’t matter, everyone’s going to be looking at me. Are you ready to do this?”

Mandy Patinkin sings the Jewish blessing “The Shehecheyanu,” and really, really wants you to check out the new season of “Homeland.”

The Vows:

  • Stephen: MaiLien, do you take Mike to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?
  • MaiLien: I do.
  • Stephen: Mike, do you do all that same stuff, but with the word wife in there?
  • Mike: I do.

“Yeah man, keep going. You’re married! Go for it. Alright, that’s enough.”

The couple’s “first dance” as Audra McDonald performs an operatic version of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding.”

© Kris Long | Comedy Central

Interview - David Finkel

  • David Finkel: There are no headlines in this book. It’s not like we don’t know war does things to people. But these are our wars, our current wars, it’s been going on for 10 years-
  • Stephen: But in World War II, those guys who came back, didn’t they have a way of dealing with it? They would just bottle it up and stuff it down, and it would just come out in some big explosion of rage in 1967 over dinner? That’s the old way, the 50′s way, the “Ike” way to do it, is never talk about your feelings.
  • David Finkel: Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it still goes on from these wars as well.

Sign Off - Audra McDonald’s Availability

Hope you have a good sized check if you choose to book her, though:

  • Here’s the good news, Audra McDonald had a concert at the Library of Congress but it got canceled because of the shutdown. So she is available to sing at your wedding.

Related posts:

  1. October 28, 2013 — Orlando Bloom
  2. October 21, 2013 — The Reflektors
  3. July 16, 2013 — David Karp
  4. October 31, 2013 — Zach Sims

15 thoughts on “October 3, 2013 — David Finkel”

  1. Last night was a great way to conclude this week. I really didn’t see the wedding coming, let alone Colbert being the master of ceremonies. Everything about the wedding was just, plain, awesome. There’s so many things going on, from shots, songs, strippers, to Smokey the Bear (who’s apparently on double duty between TDS and TCR, Sweet!) I think this is one wedding Mike, MaiLien, and the Nation will never forget. I guess TCR proved you can take a problem from the Government Shutdown and turn it into the greatest 12 minutes of comedy gold with romantic undertones on television. Kudos and Mazel Tov!

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  2. First the great ‘Get Lucky’ dance montage, then two Emmy wins and awesome Emmy segment, and now we have a wedding on Colbert Report. And I thought ‘Ur-lord of the Afterscape’ was joking when he said he will seize all government functions.

    Now I’m wondering, what’s next?

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  3. The whole wedding was great, but my favorite part was Audra McDonald’s amazing version of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”.

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    • She really did rock that song. Everybody in the audience kind of laughed when she started, but they started roaring with applause as it went on. Also liked Stephen head-banging along to it. You can tell he really respects her and they seem to have a nice “friend-of-the-show”-ship. Sure, that’s a word.

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  4. It was amazing. No offense against Mr. Finkel, but I almost wish they had cancelled the guest so they could’ve had the whole show be the wedding. I suppose that wouldn’t have been fair to the guest though. Now, did they know that Smokey the Bear was on The Daily Show or is that just a coincidence?

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    • I think it would have been better if Stephen did longer interview, and then posted it on web. Cancelling wouldn’t be fair to the guest, but honestly, such a short interview also isn’t really fair.

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      • or post more of the wedding on the web. I have a feeling that both Jon and Stephen would like to be free of the time restraints of the broadcast universe and just do the show they want to do, cut it down for air and then post the full show online. Maybe that’s me who wants that. :-)

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  5. Interesting that twice this week, both TDS and TCR had identical ideas for covering the shutdown. Sometimes they overlap jokes, but these were pretty overt!

    I’ll be honest about the wedding, though: it was fun, but felt really slapped together and under-rehearsed. Family members looking every which way, everyone crammed on the riser (which still had tape on it), the camera getting mostly their backs during the dance… directing-wise, it was a hot mess. I realize they were working on a tight timeline, but they could have done so much more with it if it had been drawn out over a few episodes. At least would’ve given us more of a reason to feel invested in the couple.

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And that's the Word!