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Wicked Radio 5-21: Adios Colbert! Will Late Night Go Back To Comedy? · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well, my friends, tonight, unless you're watching on replay or
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: listening later on, tonight is the end of an error,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the end of the beginning, the beginning of the end
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of late night propaganda television. Yeah, it's the end of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Stephen Colbert. I gotta tell you, just putting this together,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and who knows. I'm not gonna watch tonight. In fact,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I will tell you this. This is the first, I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: guess because mostly it launched in my adult career hood.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: This is the first late night comedian. I've never seen
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a live show of Colbert, never, not once. I don't
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: think I'm alone, but he still did well. Don't feel
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: bad for him. He's walking away with I don't know
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: what his net worth was, but he was making fifteen
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: million bucks a year. But do you hear how much
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: John Stewart is making currently? Still, this is why I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: think it's significant though. I think it's the beginning of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the end of propaganda late night TV. I think I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: don't know, you know, I'm not good on predictions, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I think something has changed, and it all comes down
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to this. We've already decided. I don't think the propaganda
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: late night TV. You know, my feeling's on it. You know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I hate it because they destroyed Late night for now.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I hate that because this used to be our escape
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: from all this stuff. Like Letterman and Carson, they used
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to take even Jay Leonard used to take shots at everybody. No,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: not these guys. But I think it's the end. I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: think American public has already decided. You get the feeling
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that everybody's already decided. So entertainment and the propaganda doesn't
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: work anymore. I think, depending on what comes in next anyway, well,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: we'll have some clips about the worst of Colbert and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: take a little flashback about what that very same Johnny
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Carson said about late night TV and what it's supposed
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to do from an interview on sixty minutes years ago.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: We'll go through it all right. First of all, thanks
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: for finding me with Wicket Radio and the live stream
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and the replay and all that good stuff. Appreciate you.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Audio podcast wherever you like to get those, and a
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: lot of you have on Apple and iTunes and Spotify
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and iHeart and all that good stuff anyway you can
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: find it. Let's get right to it. The end. We Oh,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and it was a big as I'm told as I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: look at the clips here big farewell week for Stephen
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Colbert going away. It was last July CBS paramount announced
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that he's gonna be going away. It's a big deal
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in the late night because we don't know exactly what's
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: coming in next we don't know what's gonna work. But
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you. Putting together the clips of all
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of the the worst of Colbert, and there's some bad
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: stuff when you see it all in a nutshell, Wow,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: this this just this doesn't even seem like anything resembling comedy.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It was propaganda late night. And he's not the only
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: one we've talked ad nauseum about Jimmy Kimmel. But when
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you look at Stephen Colbert in a in a petri
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: dish like this and just kind of examine all of it, man,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that's a rough watch. But let's get to his last
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: his last week of show. No last night in real time,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: that would be Wednesday night in real time as we
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: livestream this thing. He had a he had a big
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: farewell and he had a big special guest and it
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: was perfect and it sums the entire thing up. Who
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: do you bring on? Who's the musical superstar you bring
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: up to talk about politics and your songs. Yeah, you're right,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and we'll skip around on this. But if you're Stephen Colbert,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you have to bring up Bruce Springstein.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: The Boss prompt your presidency. I love your presidency.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Hold on, that's not him. Bruce Springsteen came out and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: he did exactly what you would expect Bruce Springsteen to do.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: This though, well, the clip that actually played there, this
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: was one of those of the worst of Stephen Colbert.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Here it is. You're ready. If you're only an audio listener,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you're not gonna get the complete picture of what this is.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: This was the infamous dancing needles, hypodermic needles, pushing everybody
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: to get the vass, widely regarded by other people that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: are way smarter than me as one of the worst
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: nights in television history. Just you can't. That's the perfect
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: example of what they tried to do is turn late
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: night comedy into propaganda. You just can't get any worse
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: than that, You really can't. And then you look back
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and you realize that what we now know about the vaccine,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: whether or not you got it or not, I did too,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I get it. Whatever, and the very serious studies that
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: are being done about the injuries. Does somebody like that
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: who pushed that, who literally did a skit on his show,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: pushing people to do that, to turn what used to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: be late night comedy into getting the vaccine. Did they
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: look back and they say, yeah, that might have been
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a mistake. No note at all, No, there's none. But
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: we'll go through and will abouts around some of the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: worst clips. I already buy. Mistake, played a little bit
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: of this, the worst of Stephen Colbert. We'll take this
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in little bite pieces.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Disgrace the nation. You attract more skinheads than free ro gain.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You have more people marching against you than cancer. You
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: talk like a sign language guerrilla who got hit in
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: good for is being Vladimir Putin's Polster Republicans can eat
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Sorry right there, because that was a common theme and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: all these clips too. It's not only this is why
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: people turned against Colber, and he did fine in his
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: own you know, every everything's different. Now you're not going
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to get the ratings that that letterman or Leno had
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: back in the day. Understand that's that's perfectly understandable. There
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: are too many options right now. But think about who
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: is in the Colbert audience. People that gobbled that up
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: because he didn't just take shots at Trump, which was
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: his whole entire thing, right that was that was the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: basis of all his comedy, so called comedy. Took shots
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: at Trump supporters all the time. That was a common
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: theme when you look through all of these clips of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the worst of Colbert. But then you have stuff like this, how.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: About that, I do know what, you know what?
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: In fact, let's be generous. They can need a bag
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: of the modern GOP would never vote for Jesus. I
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: mean he was soft on Samaritans and commanded everyone to
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: sell their possessions and give the money to the poor.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: The guy was clearly a socialist. He was worse than
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: a socialist. He was a Christian. Look, Dan, they're they're
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: they're trying to portray border patal agents and ice agents, es, Gestapo,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Nazi and many other words. Yes, do not come hair,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: ice or border patrol agents to the Nazis.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: That's an unfair comparison.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: The Nazis were willing to show their faces.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: It's amazing And I always listened to you, like with
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the audience reaction. It's not like they're mostly TV people
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: and producers and a couple of people got the free tickets.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: They just love it. It's like, yes, those bad ICE
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: people yet oh good, you get absolutely clueless, moronic people
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: just gobbling that up. Oh yes, never, never once counted
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that never said a word about all of
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the George Floyd era riots. Remember the summer of Floyd
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: not too many years ago, where all of the rioters
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: were wearing masks. Now they can do it, but the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: ICE agents can't, who are trying to protect their identities
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: because they were getting dogs by people who watch the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Coldbert Show. It's all the same thing, right, Just a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: couple more clips of the worst of Colbert before we
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: get out of this, because there's not much more I
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: can watch. To be honest with.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: You, that foundation of America's greatness, what he's building that on.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It turns out he's building that foundation out of the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: ground up bones of poor people because this budget cuts
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: things like the food stamp program and the children's health
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: insurance program. Tomorrow's the first day of televised impeachment hearings.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited, I won't be able to sleep. You
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: only survived this up till now because a lot of
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: voters didn't want to believe everything that was obvious to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: so many of.
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  Speaker 1: Them, absolute pure propaganda. And I don't think, in my
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: own personal opinion, somebody in broadcasting gets to that point
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  Speaker 1: to even have a late night program unless they're propped
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: up by somebody more powerful than them, somebody more powerful
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: than the networks. I mean, this came right from the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: political players on that side of things, if you know
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: what I mean. That's how somebody like that gets to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: be where he is. Actually, all of them, when you
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: take them all in comparison here, what did they do? Though?
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Don't feel sorry for them? And very successful as far
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: as broadcast goes. Now, he was making fifteen million dollars
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a year reportedly. Okay, so good for him. I would
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I'm a capitalist. I would never fault anybody from making
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: as much money as they possibly can. But just for
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: comparison's sake, listen to some of the others so late
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: night comedians and how much they were making. This was
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the shocker to me. John Stewart twenty five million a year.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: He's still on twenty five John Stewart, that's comedy Central, right,
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  Speaker 1: I think John Oliver when he wraps it up, I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: will not be playing clips from John Oliver. I can't
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: stomach it. I just can't stand the guy. But thirty
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: million a year, that can't be right. Come on, Jimmy
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Fallon's making sixteen millionaire now, Jimmy Fallon, at least you
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: have to say is incredibly talented performer. You know it's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: too much of him on NBC, but he's making sixteen
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: He should be making thirty million a year. To anybody,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Kimmel makes sixteen million a year. We knew that. Seth
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Meyers himself makes five million a year. These people have
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: done very very well for themselves by playing the game.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: You see what I'm getting at here. The game is
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: their political propagandis who we're told to do certain things
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and told to do certain people near more than willing
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to do it. And I don't think they're the only
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: ones in entertainment be willing more than willing to play
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: along with this game for the paycheck. I think most
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: of people in entertainment and broadcasting would. In fact, I
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: think a lot are doing that right now. I think
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: secretly and Hollywood actors say this all the time. Boy,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: you'd be shocked. And how many Trump supporters there are
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: out here? I bet it's the same exact thing in television. Well,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Trump was Colbert's main source of content right because he
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: takes shots at Trump. It's the low hanging fruit, your
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: your lefty audience, whatever's left, and it gobbles it right up.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: They love it. What was Trump's reaction? Some reporter asked
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: them about Colbert going away just yesterday on the tarmac,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: what do you have to say, class shark tomorrow night?
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: What's your message to him?
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: But the late nine hearts Steven Colbert's last shock gets
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: being such a storage critic, that will I work. I'll
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: have a message.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: At a later day.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, it looks it right at the camera, sory. I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: love a message at the later date to me following
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Trump in the news as far as long as I have.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: You know what that means. He went right on that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: plane and he started writing out just a blistering truth
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: social pre posted to be released tonight during Colbert's show.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I could just imagine that loser late night, very low
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: talent loser Stephen Colbert finally goes away. So this makes
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the question where are we now? What happens. Now, What
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: does this all mean? I've gotten this feeling for a
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: long time, just talking to people and following so many
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: news stories for as long as I have, And it
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: kind of felt this way during the last final months
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of the last presidential election. Don't you get the feeling
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: that everybody's already decided? Maybe not the younger generation because
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: they're still putting their thoughts together, but everybody of Gen
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: X and you're my age and working adult people who
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: have real lives and they are trying to get stuff
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: done and make money and have families and live in
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: American life. Don't you think everybody's already decided? Like? How
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: could how effective? Really? Do you think all the late
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: night propagandas actually are, Like does it really matter? Does
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: that much of it really matter? I don't think it does.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Who Like, there's so much available content out there these
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: days that it's pretty rare for anybody that's a young
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: person to make his or her political opinions swayed by
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a late night so called comedian. I don't think it
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: works anymore. And I think the powers that be understand that.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I think CBS and Paramount understand that they weren't getting
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: their bang for their buck. At some point somebody has
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: to look at that and go, Okay, budget for next year,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: we're paying Colbert what how much? Fifteen a year? Are
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you serious? We're averaging just a little over a million
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a night. Now in television terms, that's like nothing that
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: would be different in podcast world. But still, at some
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: point you got to realize the bang isn't worth the buck,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and I think they're starting to realize that. But more importantly,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: what leads to all of that, I think America's had enough.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I think the game is finally up. We've realized what
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you and I have realized years ago, that this isn't
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the late night that we signed up for. This isn't
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the late night that we grew up with. This isn't
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the late night that was an escape for everybody at
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the end of a long work day. That was the
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: entire point and pick any late night commeding soh back
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: even pre Carson, That's exactly what it was. And then
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: all the guys that had shows after that, they took
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: shots at everybody because it was current events, it was
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in the news, was a daily monologue, but they weren't
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: propagandas for any one particular party, even though they may
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: have been part of that party, Republican or Democrat, doesn't matter.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: They did their absolute best to keep themselves out of it. Maybe,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be hopeful here, maybe that's where we're
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: returning once again, because they think they're finally realizing that
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: it's just not effective anymore. Not past, not past the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: covid era, not past all the other crap, not where
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: we are now because people have this information that's available
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to them to find their own information sources, not propagandists,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you know, pretending to be late night comedians. To sum
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: this up, I'm gonna leave you with this. That's what
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Johnny Carson said about this in an interview with sixty
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Minutes Mike Wallace. They're the very serious questions he asked
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: him exactly about that. Why don't you take political stances?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: This is the greatest Johnny Carson answer of all and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: this sums up the entire thing. It's a little long,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: but listen to what he says. He knew it back then,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: He knew exactly what he could have done, and he
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: realized why he didn't do it that way. And here's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: his answer.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: But the fact that people say, he'll never take a
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: serious controversy. Well, I have an answer to that, I said, Now,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: tell me the last time that Jack Benny red Skelton
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: uh Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: That's not what I'm there for. Can't they see that?
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: But you're not.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Do they think that just because you have it tonight's show,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: that you must deal in serious issues. It's a danger,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: It's a real danger. Once you start that, you start
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: to get that self important feeling that what you say
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: has great import and you know, strangely enough, you could
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: use that show as a form you could sway people,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: and I don't think you should as an entertainer.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: The legend said it right there. He was actually mostly
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: before my time too, but he understood it even way
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: back in the power of television and what he should
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and what he shouldn't do. He could heal people of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: all different persuasions at the end of a long day
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and kind of take people's minds off the insanity of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the time. Remember Johnny Carson was on throughout all of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the Vietnam era and Watergate era and the riots in
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight and all that stuff. Tried to keep
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: people out of it. Can you imagine somebody like Colbert
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: back in back in those times, it would have been horrific.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: But I think the good news is we're turning away
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: from that. I think one down and plenty of other
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: late night propagandists to go. Let's see. I don't know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Thankstra hanging out with me. I appreciate you. I gotta
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: get out of here. I gotta get to catch a flight.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So hopefully we're on live stream and tomorrow I hope
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Fingers Crossed depends on the hotel room in New York City,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: but regardless, extra finding this live stream Monday through Friday,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: eightym Eastern time on x and YouTube and Facebook, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: then the replay. But the audio podcast is where this
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: thing lives. Mostly wherever you like to get those, he
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: can find me, and I appreciate you for doing that
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: so much. Make it a is it Thursday already? Holy cow?
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: And make it a wicked, awesome one. I'll talk to
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: you tomorrow