Last night, in another installment of his amazing “People Who Are Destroying America” segment, Stephen Colbert introduced the world to Johnny Cummings (yes, that’s apparently his real name), the openly gay mayor — who doubles as the town hairdresser — of Vicco, Kentucky, a small town in the state’s mountain region that made headlines for passing a strict law prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians earlier this year.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is one of the more beautiful things the Colbert Report has ever produced. Seeing how a bunch of hillbillies have embraced their gay mayor is both hilarious and heart-warming, and naturally it’s all presented in a faux-ominous tone that wonders, “What if gay tolerance spreads to the rest of small town America?” As Carol Hartsell notes at HuffPo, “Whenever Stephen Colbert debuts one of his “People Who Are Destroying America” segments, you know you’re about to meet someone wonderful.”
And how…
And if you missed it earlier, Colbert also did a fun interview with Kevin Spacey last night.
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I will pay him so much money to fix my hair.
Well Boyd cross dresses, Kentucky is totally tolerant.
What, only 3 Daily Show/Colbert posts today Warming Glow? Surely you can do better.
That was f-in great! Hooray for tolerance and intelligence!
Hang on, is he openly the mayor?>!~
I’m tired of these perverts shoving their careers down my throat. Imprison all the politicians.
Only part tuat bothered me was the audience laughing AT the folks (the non-crazy religious one’s I mean) for the way they talked. Kinda bigoty.
You have a point, but to me it seemed they were laughing more at the concept behind the idea… I could see a channel like FOX news running a segment about “family values under attack” and attach the testimonies of “simple folk” as “evidence.” When it’s the Colbert Report supplying the ominous voice over, it’s funny to see stereotypically country-sounding people doing the opposite of what we normally expect.
Anyway, I loved this bit.
I loved it too. I guess the part that made me squirm were the moments early on when the audience didn’t know what they were supposed to laugh at, and you hear a bunch of them tittering AT the folks. A really complicated segment for an educated Appalachian ( Hill-William) like myself.
This town? Needs its own reality show. I would watch the hell out of that show.
Would never work. Not enough “drama” or “Realness” or “implants.”
It’s amazing what happens when you actually know a homosexual or two as opposed to just “accidentally” bumping into them when you “accidentally” walk into a gay bar to “order a beer”
I love that a small town that still allows smoking during city council meetings is forward-thinking enough to not only support their gay mayor, but to openly embrace him. There is nothing better than hearing pro-gay rights statements spoken in that thick, Southern twang. Music to my ears.
Plus, that cop fucking rules.
Paraphrising: “He stood by me through all my four marriages”.The best part.
Thar’s a few of us folks down here in the South being all intolerant ‘en such.