Tough Crowd for Boyle-Bashing Stephen Colbert

By Marc Schneider Posted Feb 1st 2010 10:57AM

There were a lot of winners Sunday at the Grammys, but as with any other awards show you've got to have some stinkers in the mix. While we're passport-holding residents of Colbert Nation, we weren't feeling great about Stephen Colbert and his spotty, Susan Boyle-bashing monologue.

The Comedy Central star seemed off from the start, and received an icy glare from Jay-Z after giving him a "wuddup, Z" shout-out from the stage. After warning his daughter to "stay away from Katy Perry," he launched into a meanish rant about the second-biggest selling artist of 2009: Susan Boyle. Watch Video Above

"Congratulations to all of you, but what I want to know is -- Why isn't Susan Boyle here? I mean, she accomplished something huge this year. You all may have brought the sexy back, but she sent it away again! No thanks Sexy, we're just going with good singing this year."

He continued: "Seriously, you may be cool here but this year your industry was saved by a 48 year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes. So, give it up for Susan Boyle! congratulations, Susan!"

The San Francisco Chronicle said, "either Stephen Colbert was before the wrong audience or he had the wrong material" and that listening to his jokes "hurt as much as having the needle of a flu shot driven into your arm."

Commenters on IrishCentral.com were equally peeved by Colbert's ribbing of Boyle. "Who's Stephen Colbert anyway?" one person wrote. "Another case of professional jealousy if you ask me ... He made himself look bad, not Susan!"

It was the second time in a week that Boyle had been publicly dissed. The harshest blow came with comments from her idol, Elaine Page, who called the singer a "girl with no experience of anything to do with theatrics, the music business, or art in any way."

Paige said that Boyle "was like a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond," saying that her rise to fame via YouTube and the Web doesn't mean she's cut out for showbiz.

Tags: stephen colbert, susan boyle

Comments

(38)

Monday 01 February

By TimC

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Honestly, I only remember seeing Colbert a few times and couldn't figure out who he was when I was watching. He was definitely out of his element. Painful to watch

By Brandon from Florida

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My wife and I thought Stephen was hilarious! Most people don't understand that you aren't supposed to take him seriously.

By Pchlavendar

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Oh sure they do, Brandon. Get over yourself. Colbert was insulting and not funny. And I've always been a fan.

By Dallas

Clobert is NOT funny, Kathy Griffin deserved the award

By Robin

Colbert was a DUD............not funny, and obnoxious. Whose idea was it to have him host the Grammy's for God's sake. Please, no more Colbert.

By sunny

SUSAN IS GREAT! LOVE HER CD, AND HER STORY. I AM SOOOO HAPPY SHE OUT SOLD ALL OF THE TARTS PUSHING THEIR BODY INSTEAD OF THEIR VOICE. MAYBE IT IS BECAUSE SHE HAS A BEAUTIFUL VOICE, NOT A FAKE ONE WITH BACKUP SINGERS TO HIDE/COVER MISTAKES.

By Dianne

I'm not a fan of mean humor even when it IS funny - and this was not. I have no idea why he or his writers decided to choose Susan Boyle to pick on. A funny man with charm and intelligent wit can be quite charming. Steven Colbert was none of those things last night.

By Tena

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the guy was not funny !!! he did a horrible job hosting what were they thinking !!!

By kay

Colbert was obnoxious

By Entropydecides

Colbert is only out of his league when the league can't keep up.
That league would consist of a large number of the attendees at the Grammys.
Yes, the "cool" people were taking a hit...but they didn't know how to handle it...judging by this headline, they're still in denial or oblivious to the insult. Yeah, reflect a bit. The consumer chose talent over sex. When the media can't motivate us with sex or fear, where's the world headed?
Thanks Stephen, and thank you Susan Boyle aka She Who Is

By adkam

Bottom line is it was classless of him. Susan Boyle isn't out behaving like the music stars who normally get "roasted" at these events, so it seems cruel when he picks on her. It isn't funny, it isn't necessary and it feels like he just kicked a puppy on stage. There are 100s of celebs in the audience, why not poke at them?! And he definitely doesn't have room to define what or who is sexy.

By holly

I believe all of you, including the author of this piece, misunderstood what he was trying to say. He certainly went about it the wrong way, but I interpreted his rambling to say that everyone sitting there may be beautiful and sexy but Susan Boyle was the one with the talent. He was really asking where she was. I think he was trying to say that it was unfair that she wasn't there simply because she is plain.
Yes, he said mean things. But I think his intent was misunderstood.

By Debbie

Lighten up Jay-Z. It was all in fun.

Tuesday 02 February

By Vicky Wiley

Why wasn't Susan even nominated in the first place?

Tuesday 16 February

By Olivia

Steve Colbert was actually praising Susan Boyle.You missed the point. He was saying you all might be sexy but she can sing.He was knocking the music industry for NOT giving her an award because shes not sexy and he was right she deserved an award.Thats Steven Colbert... he zings people that deserve it and they don't realize what happened. Besides Kings Of Leon there wasn't much talent at the awards.SSDY.

Thursday 20 May

By JB

Those of you took this as insulting obviously didn't quite get it. He was not insulting her. He was right in asking why she wasn't there. The woman can sing. And he was poking more fun at other people (especially listeners) who only listen to certain music because the artists are attractive (and the labels for promoting primarily 'typical' attractive people).

And realise that he is IN CHARACTER. Stephen Colbert has created a character who is a TV show host. Do you really think his daughter wasn't in on the jokes? I mean, c'mon. Wake up people.

If you don't LIKE Colbert, fine. That's your opinion. But make sure you don't like him for the right reasons. His jokes are generally very smart and require more thinking than the usual slap-stick and swearing and yelling and 'pie-in-the-face' humour we are so often over-exposed to.

Monday 05 July

By robert stephenson

Colbert hit the nail on the head. The truth is Susan scares the Sh*t out of these self satified numpties in the audience. The reason being she, unlike most of them, can actually sing. Colbert told the truth and scored a direct hit - which the audience did not appreciate. Let hope we see the wonderfully talented Ms Boyle at next years Grammys but I won't hold my breath.Regards from UK!!!!

Sunday 07 November

By lin

It is sad that Elaine Page is such a mean spirited person and obviously jealous of the success of Susan Boyle, who has called Elaine her idol. She and Stephen Colbert do not realize that beauty is from within and "art" is in the eye or ear of the beholder. Frankly, I would say that tons of people dig Susan's art!! I for one, am most happy that she was discovered and listen to her CDs with a smile on my face.

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