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SYFY WIRE Bad Astronomy

Was Colbert Colberted by Corbett?

By Phil Plait
corbett_colbert.jpg

I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert (duh), and of nerdiness in general. So I was pretty happy when Colbert flew his geek flag high and spent a whole segment talking about the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens that had the internetosphere buzzing over the weekend.

Here’s the clip. Watch it … 

Pretty great segment, but I couldn’t help noticing the tweet Colbert mocked:

The tweeter of that tweet is Bill Corbett … from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and more recently from Rifftrax! He’s a comedian* known for sarcasm and satire. The tweet was obviously satire, but Colbert plays it straight with no indication he (or his staff writers) knew that they were satirically mocking a tweet that was satirically mocking others.

We’re at Inception-level mockery here, folks. Buckle up.

I don’t know how distressed this has made Bill. If you want to make him feel better, then maybe you could buy his book, Super Powered Revenge Christmas. He can cry all the way to PayPal.

*Full disclosure: Bill and I have been friends for a few years, though if you ask him he may delightfully claim he’s never heard of me, and please leave him alone, and now he’s calling the cops. 

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