Stephen
Colbert
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) launched on the scene big time in 2006 with his brilliant and scathing performance at the White House Correspondents' dinner, and the Colbert-coined "truthiness" was chosen as Word of the Year by the American Dialetic Society and Meriam-Webster.
Colbert unveiled his new word, "factiness" on his 2007 debut, featuring guest Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. During the (mock) interview, Colbert demonstrated he knew what "shake" is, and Nadelmann commented that while viewers surely must get drunk to watch Bill O'Reilly, probably half of Colbert's audience got stoned before watching. On his January 18 show while introducing O'Reilly, Colbert announced, "You're not high, Bill O'Reilly is really here. You might also be high."
In a January 2006 City Arts and Lectures interview with SF Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman at the Herbst theatre in San Francisco, Colbert said he smoked "a lot" of pot for a period of time in high school, while honing his devil-may-care comedy style. Fans of the VIP site have written in to nominate Colbert, who makes references to medical marijuana while interviewing Congressmen, and peppers other segments with pot jokes, e.g. when he asked Ben & Jerry about their flavor named for VIP Willie Nelson, "What's his made of, shredded tax forms and hash?" On July 26, he showed a clip of the USDA's 1942 film Hemp for Victory film before introducing Marijuana Policy Project's Aaron Houston.
Colbert recently interviewed psychedelic author Daniel Pinchbeck in a segment that began with some pretty trippy camerawork. After Pinchbeck's description of a Yage trip, Colbert commented it was like the opposite of a hangover--you feel sick first and good the next day. Words to remember at hangover season, and the rest of the year as well.
Copyright
2007 Very Important Potheads
VERY
IMPORTANT POTHEADS
Changing the Face of Cannabis