Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Stephen Colbert, parody
Likes: The Daily Show
Dislikes: Fox News Channel
Hates: Right-wing politics

The Show
When it's obvious that a generation of TV viewers gets their news from a comedian posing as an anchor, why shouldn't they get their punditry from the same source? Thus, it makes perfect sense that the hilarious loins of "The Daily Show," itself a brilliant spoof of TV news, would give birth to the deadly-accurate conservative-TV parody "The Colbert Report," starring everyone's favorite faux-Republican Stephen Colbert.

After years honing his ability to be achingly earnest, ridiculously dramatic and stunningly condescending as a supposed reporter on Jon Stewart's cultural institution, Colbert was the perfect choice to headline a take-off on the many news channel pundits who do little more than spout their opinions. Colbert's got plenty of opinions as well and some of them aren't made up. Those that are, are brilliant skewerings of the "agree with me or you're wrong" school of thought, and are delivered with just the right amount of smarminess and self-righteousness, ensuring you could plop him down between Hannity and O'Reilly without much anyone noticing until that sly self-satisfied smirk made an appearance.

This DVD pulls together nearly three hours of the series' special kind of political insanity, starting with its signature segment, "Better Know a District." A series of profiles covering the country's hundreds of congressional districts, it's best known for the interviews with sitting representatives or those challenging for the seat. It's in these scant few minutes that legends like Florida representative Robert Wexler are made. Safe from worry due to the lack of an election competitor, Wexler is led by Colbert into saying things that in a contested race, would make him lose, like "I enjoy cocaine because it's a fun thing to do." It is amazing to see a politician fall for a trick like this in today's supposedly media-savvy times. Wexler's interview just barely earns the crown for best "District," edging out Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting representative from Washington, D.C., who gets into a adversarial exchange with Colbert that's quite funny.

Better known in the mainstream, thanks to its success in illustrating the fluidity and falsehoods of language, "The Wørd" is...a word... selected to allow Colbert to ponder and preach, while the on-screen text serves up punchline after punchline, goofing on O'Reilly's "talking points." While the hysterical segments on "truthiness" and "wikiality" are well-known, especially the gags about the online encyclopedia's reliability, this disc highlights the underrated "sigh," which relies entirely on Colbert's physical emoting. This bit continues to show how to get the most out of a little inspiration. It's not the only O'Reilly influence found here, as the Colbert Report appearance by "Papa Bear" is also included.

Though the show is best known for its take on serious topics in politics and culture, like the ridiculous "Cooking with Feminists" segment with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem and the "ThreatDown" list of dangers facing America, like Canadian medicine and stem cell sperm, the show could get seriously silly as well. The famous "Green Screen Challenge" is summarized on this DVD, showing some of the entries recieved when Colbert danced around in front of a green screen with a lightsaber and asked people to fill in the video. The challenge came down to two talented hobbyists, and boy was it a close call. The challenge led the band the Decemberists to hold a challenge of their own, which led Colbert to challenge them to a guitar battle. And thus, Guitarmageddon was born. It's probably the best example of how the show can lose its way, and come out better for it in the end, as an all-star jam breaks out in the studio.

Though part of the show's egomaniacal charm, the segments on how great Colbert is, represented by the various animals, ice creams, locations and mascots named after him, are a bit repetitive and less entertaining than a bit like the uncomfortable close solo interview with Fonda. It's better when, like in Guitarmageddon, Colbert is challenged and can respond. So when Sean Penn comes in for the "Meta-Free-Phor-All," Barry Manilow faces the music or Stone Phillips takes on Colbert in "Let the Gravitas Begin," it creates a memorable segment. After all, it's not every day you see Willie Nelson have a taste test with an American hero.

The only real complaint about the DVD is the somewhat lazy editing. Lead-in bumpers remain in place when they could be excised, end bits of previous segments are left in occasionally, which leaves the overall disc a bit disjointed. Some intros from Colbert (or someone else connected to the show) could have smoothed out the bumps, but it's something of a minor complaint.

The DVD
A one-disc release, packaged in a standard keepcase, this DVD features an animated full-frame main menu that allows you to choose a play-all option or individual chapters, and check out DVD previews. There are no audio options and no subtitles, though there is closed captioning.

The Quality
The full-frame video is better than it's ever looked on Comedy Central, with an extremely sharp image that features vivid color, though oddly, when the show uses older clips, they look like hell, coming across grainy and dull. The black levels are very strong, and there's nothing negative in the video, with nonotable digital artifacts.

The audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 track that's just what you got on TV, with nice clean dialogue and the music is handled well also. Nothing too impressive, but it's a cable TV comedy talk show. What would you expect?

The Extras
Not a single extra, outside of the reel of DVD previews. It's a definite disappointment, after the stack of bonus material available on the "Daily Show" DVDs.

The Bottom Line
Though similar in tone to "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" has its own voice and stands on its own as a fantastic parody and a brilliant piece of satire, and is the perfect showcase for Colbert's comic abilities. The three hours of highlights on this DVD are an excellent mix of what makes the show so entertaining, and avoids the pitfalls inherent in archiving a topical show. The DVD looks fantastic and sounds as good as one could expect, but the complete lack of extras is a let-down, especially since Colbert has provided solid commentary tracks in the past. Fans of the show will definitely want to check this out to revisit the good times, while those who haven't seen the show can dive in with this disc.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.