Last night on Comedy Central's Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert teed up a segment called Fallback Position with the following shocking claim: MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews "once put a potato in a blond wig at his desk for a week and no one noticed."

As amazing as that claim is, Mr. Colbert did offer photographic proof. (Right.)

Last night, Paul Begala appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to promote his new book Third Term: Why George W. Bush ♥s John McCain. During the interview, Mr. Begala, a former Clinton advisor, told Mr. Colbert, "Being from Texas, I wear cowboy boots. I don't even own shoelaces."

Mr. Begala is from Texas? Why doesn't he ever mention that?  read more »

Last night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert waxed Keith Olbermannian and earnestly refused to mock Robert Novak for his hit-and-run assault on a homeless pedestrian because the syndicated columnist has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

"Wow," the host said after wishing Mr. Novak well. "I'm pretty impressed with myself right now." Adding, "I am deeply moved by me."

With the time blocked out for a segment about Novak, Mr. Colbert was forced to improvise, leaving him feeling like "I'm up on a high wire with my junk flapping in the breeze." The next three minutes were taken up with fake phone calls praising his restraint and asking Mr. Colbert if he'd do the same for Ted Kennedy ("That is completely different!") and plugging The Colbert Report's Special Report, "Silent Night: Stephen Colbert's Heroic Refusal to Discuss Robert Novak."

Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz appeared on The Colbert Report last night to discuss the nerdiness of his title character in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Joseph Pulitzer's immigrant past; and his parents' confusion about what the Pulitzer prize actually is. When Mr. Colbert asked about scenes in Mr. Diaz's book that involve beatings in Dominican cane fields, Mr. Diaz replied: "Cane fields are scary. Any time you drive by them, they're like triffids. They crack in the wind."

Triffids are deadly, semi-intelligent, make-believe plants that have thick tentacles and spray poisonous gas featured in science fiction novels, including The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and Simon Clark's The Night of the Triffids.  read more »

On Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Washington D.C., writers from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” will be staging a mock debate about the writers strike, called “the State of the Union.”  read more »

"Stephen Colbert" has become one of the most richly textured characters on television. Sadly, none of that makes I Am America (And So Can You!) worth reading.  read more »