Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” No offense, Andy, but it’s more like, “In the future, everybody will be accused of being racist on Twitter for fifteen minutes.” Stephen Colbert’s fifteen minutes are happening now, after the PC police grew outraged over an out-of-context, Mickey Rooney-approved “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong” tweet. Removed from the joke itself, that sounds kind of bad, but it’s actually part of a satirical bit Colbert’s been doing for years.
To note: “Ching Chong Ding Dong” has been a Colbert Report staple since the show’s launch in 2005, and is a fairly meta bit wherein Stephen Colbert’s pundit character pretends to be another character (a bucktoothed Chinaman stereotype), and sees nothing wrong with it because “there’s a difference between me and a character I’m doing.” (Via)
Not Colbert’s finest material, but certainly not racist, either. As for the tweet that launched a thousand…these: it came from The Colbert Report‘s Twitter, not Colbert’s personal account.
Colbert himself responded, too.
In conclusion: if you’re gonna fire Colbert, make it a good reason, like starring in The Love Guru.
(Just kidding, he’s great in that otherwise garbage-puddle of a film.)
