Steven called very connected with a whole new generation. That David Letterman you know the outer reaches of David Letterman's appeal which was profound and extensive but I think that compare appeals to much younger people I know he when my daughter graduated from college Stephen Colbert was the speaker and he was absolutely connected to the students they totally got him and you know he gave the and you know that instead of the normal commencement speech but go out there and make the most of yourself and do everything that you can to be everything that you want to be he came in and he gave the office his pieces you know don't change don't worry don't don't don't don't really make an effort just enjoy your life and he was obviously intentionally giving the exact opposite of the predicted speech obvious to everyone see that's that's my one can Stern with Stephen Colbert or I Stephen Colbert would have been my 2nd choice to replace Who would have been your 1st Jon Stewart and the verse similar and they sort of parallel women other the differences when Jon Stewart does his parody or a sack talker or as you know but whatever you want to call it as he as the farther it gets into it it becomes very obvious by the end I'm just kidding I'm just kidding I'm just making fun of the my opposition cold beer doesn't do that cold there stays serious all the way through and even as he gives his punch line there are those and I don't know what the percentages are but it scares me who don't get the fact that he's just kidding and I'm guessing that someone in that audience didn't you know that probably left there instead Ok I'm going to follow that advice not realizing just like the right wing could easily listen to Stephen Colbert and go yes he's on our side well you know they in during the occupation of France terrible war to the French resistance now. Bure's had a motto which was think of it always speak of it never and what in a way that's what call various doing it covariance is for the people that are knowledgeable and understand him you know he's directly communicating with them and for the ones that don't understand him and are not necessarily knowledgeable about what he's about he's placating them he's in other words he's getting his message out. Without really he's making fun but he's making fun of the way that the people who be made fun of can't recognize that in a way that's maybe the best way to do it because he's drawing the least amount of fire you know when they went during the communists the cycle economies of let's call totalitarian. Domination of Eastern Europe. The the media the newspaper writers in particular they would cover the state propaganda but they would take it to the next level they would make it sound when they when they would talk about how great the agricultural distribution was and how productive it was they would say you know we're celebrating the fact that everyone is rising up and celebrating the fact that they're giving up eating on Saturdays and they're all joyous about it and they would report you know ridiculous facts to the extreme yelling and so the but the point was they were communicating by by making absurd what was happening but it was a dual message the people that thought it was good communists who were dominating thought you know that's that's what I want to hear everyone else knew that it was ridiculous Yeah well you're saying there's 2 groups I'm saying there's a 3rd there's those who agree with us there's those that and get it there are those on the other side who don't get it you know the human life and pick up on it but there's the middle group the on the edge and I'm afraid some of those might fall full of the wrong side I mean you know when when Charlie Chaplin does. A parody on made off Hitler or when Molly Python you know there's a parody on any number of professions Unfortunately with satire it's a very powerful tool Oh that not everybody gets it in somehow at the end there has to be I don't care whether you hold up a sign that says hey we're just kidding Some people don't get it and they get the wrong message and that's my only problem with Steve called their I think he's brilliant I think is absolutely creativity is brilliant he's a great entertainer I my understanding is they're not going to have to play that role when he plays the you know the host right of the show but I don't I mean. Points a good man in the sense that you know there was a parody of Hitler that Jack Benny had made a movie with with your wife who was a beautiful woman that was married to Clark Gable and Pat had died in the plane crash the net of dynamite so she was a very famous actress and it caused quite a store because they they they made fun of and ridiculed Hitler. You know in a I think in a stream of the effective way but it wasn't as harsh as people wanted you know if you you know you you know your spouse you know sort of understandably so you know meat and potato kind of satire and I think that what cold there the genius of cold there was he figured out how to thread the needle of a certain type of commonality and you know I have to tell you this it is subtle though and I agree with you Ok you know it very much that I understand I think the best satire is where as it moves on it becomes increasingly obvious I try to do that if I'm doing something satiric I start out with something maybe maybe someone might even call it sarcastic and then at some point you see this big grin this Cheshire cat grin on my face to let you know just kidding you know and sometimes it fools people nor people who when they're talking to me don't realize I'm kidding that gets a bit scary but there's you know my letter but I'm saying Jon Stewart when he does the very same thing that cold beer does it gets the obviousness of it gets increasingly apparent right there was with cold there from start to finish he maintains that same straight face and I'm my my fear I mean this is not a indorsement of the intellect of the American people and my fear is some people won't get it and go oh I had Steve Caldera said this that's what I'm going to do that's my fear my brother tone. He was the best Sacha's I ever have seen and one time he was we were in elevator and there was a kind of a conservative older guy in the elevator and we were talking and. Nixon came up and and the guy said my boss off Nixon I can't stand Nixon he's the guy that got us out of Vietnam that is ridiculous No I just I'm a subset of that you know. I think I was going to wait a bit well wait a 2nd Ok that's different the for that person you know your audience is and you're going to figure it out you know if you want to leave he made the point is he could yes he could he could figure it out. And Kara Lombardi's who I was trying to think of the beautiful woman that was married to Clark Gable that starred with Jack Benny and that satire and Adolf Hitler was really going to report for me to know that you know so but the point was that it was sarcastic yes but the point is is that is that the fellow he didn't pick up on the fact that my brother of course was just you know having some fun with him but he was but he was making him think about the inconsistency is because everyone's thinking oh Nixon was so pro-war but yet he got us out of there so I think that that type of humor to the extent that you can where you can show the irrationalities you know this is where it's going to be an important listeners such and such importance to be a good listener Oh please understand are you not in any way discounting the power of parody and satire I'm the biggest fan to I mean I hang on the words of a Joe mink and way back in the twenty's and thirty's who. I mean he said look at everybody else complains about a high taxes are I never complain that that time I think daily taxes average like $2.00 a day so I never complain about that because for that 2 dollars again $930.00 s. Time I get the most humorous the funniest show the anybody could ever pay for the American government at work. And this is really finished is this quote by saying so funny that only a person who was born with it and I'm quoting him a petrified God or friend could fail to laugh invoke to sleep every single moment well you know he was a Jamaican am glad you brought him up because of course he wrote the The Great multi-volume treatise on the American language and he was from the American point of view and as and it's really fun to read that but one of the things that he was a great satirist he was feared he was so sure capable with his pen and his such a connoisseur of words and he was really tough on f.d.r. Very very tough on f.d.r. You know and he gave a speech one time at one of these you know reporter type of dinners where the president's there and he gave a speech and f.d.r. Was kind of really cutting and then f.d.r. Took the mike and if you're you know you want to you know want to mix with f.d.r. You know he if you had the nice guy image but he was he was a fighter and he took the mike was this a roast this was kind of a gross Yeah it was kind of a roast and and f.d.r. Took the mike and he started describing a certain personality based on the mistakes they had made and he did it in a very subtle way but each one became more biting and clear and by the time they were done Make it was like the only red phase the 3rd out of the room but you know that's what that was like it when f.d.r. Said you know these Republican leaders are not content with attacks on me or my wife or my son no not content with that they now attack my little dog Falla Ok And he used satire and that destroyed literally destroyed Thomas Dewey campaign in 1904 and that's what the Greek the Greeks taught us Aristotle taught us that the greatest way to discredit the ethos of your opponent. The the integrity of the standing with the with the audience of your opponent is ridicule it's hard to get there the ridicule is hard you can't start off with ridicule right out of the chute Now one of the point I do want to say though about time about sort of the reason I don't like people like. Rush Limbaugh Is it because of what he stands for it's because he reinforces a certain type of feeling and point of view or I will put it this way he reinforces the neural passageways of people that have hardening of the intellectual arteries or I love the friend and and he reinforces that because you know there's a risk that they might not remember to be narrow minded one day they might wake up and forget they're supposed to be narrow minded and have ill will towards their fellow you know people that are different than them and I think that to the extent that we do that. To the extent that we you know do as what can move would say you know don't be an executioner I mean don't be a victim but don't become an executioner you know some say in the middle to the extent that those of us who believe in redemptive goodwill who believe in progress who believe in the evolution of and the perfectibility of men and women to the extent that you embrace a certain type of of you know just tell me what I want to hear tell me the other guy's bad and reinforce how I feel could I may I may not feel that way tomorrow I think that that makes in sense you are you are actually undermining your position as someone who believes in and lighten it and actually strengthen the other side's position that those types of tactics are acceptable and I think what Co bear does is he keeps he gives everyone guessing but he's an enormously energy Oh yeah he does he just by the way for those of you who are just joining us on Douglas Holbrook and this is Michael Carey and we're trying to this is our marathon to keep you from succumbing to what Michael Carey calls the hardening of the cerebral hardening of the intellectual intellectual arteries that's why if I get it George Lakoff says George they don't like us is the reason that conservatives are conservatives is because they're they're narrow passageways have become frozen and they're not flexible anymore and of course you can say the same thing about a lot of different perspectives but you know so that's why I always try to when I'm trying to convince someone who is close minded I always tell them that it's not their fault they have a neural passageway problem that we have to work with you k. They I say that it's gibberish that's almost it's almost poetic it's and of course they look at me and say you've got a narrow passageway problem and that's the reason why you have a completely different level of discussion the power of humor and of course the true humility is really there are some true geniuses the float around them among us but but the power of humor to make a. Point is so profound. And cold beer and Jon Stewart are the 2 that I would sort of Submit have the capability Frankly Michael I think they have the capability of turning an election I think David Letterman and his ilk could have done to your combination of Jay Leno and they they were on the verge of it. But they just never take that final step Well that's it may not be appropriate for them to do that but I can remember it's just part of the problem probably get through so I think it will take it I think that they have the capability of doing even something more profound than that and that is changing people's values and getting them to become more value oriented I want to say that about humor I know that for me personally when I was involved in the mayor's race in the last year I went before the Democratic Central Committee people the audience was filled with people that tested me for you know because of the unions and all my battles and and all and I went into them and I thought well if I could They're just fire and brimstone but then I thought you know I got in there for a while and I started looking around and one of my opponents you know had you know had his sheets had every endorsement I mean the pope all the way down to the you know street cleaners and so when I get up and I said you know I I love the Democratic Party I'll always be a Democrat and you know believe it's an honor to be even so seated with the Democratic Party and you know one thing I want to say is that I really need your endorsement I you know my opponents they all you know already have all the endorsements I don't really have any endorsements and I need your endorsement and the reason I'm a member the Democratic Party is because the Democrats always help people in need well and they and they remember everyone everyone well they've ever had burst out laughing because you know they and even though they didn't like me. They like the humor they appreciate the humor and it's hard to do that because we all get so defensive but I think it's a mindset and the average person can't do that and Ronald Reagan could do that yes when he said Oh I'm not going to hold your you're gay did you hear age in your is this inexperience against you he turned that whole thing around in Mondale is just flat footed he didn't know what to say you know I I'm I've never been a fan of Ronald Reagan but a couple of his responses are ones that I remember and I remember once when he was governor of California and he was in front of a group of students from San Francisco State who were there yelling and screaming in his advisor says don't go out there don't go out there Governor No I want to go and confront them and they're out and so he goes out there and then they're yelling you're old you know you're all you're beyond your times you don't understand you weren't even born when you were born we didn't have telephones we didn't have televisions we didn't have the computers we didn't have all these things and the rattling off the things that that he that he was sort of. Unaware of because when he was born they just didn't have them new inventions and so he he looked at them and he and he finally took the mike and said You're right you're right we didn't the truth is when I was born we didn't have televisions and telephones and then he paused and said which is why we invented them for you. It was a good line we don't it was you know that it was an amazing like you know I mean his good is a big it was the No it is it is I mean his but. His diary right now and you know all presidents have a certain life force no president is no matter how you slice it. If you read the story anyone's story they're pathway to the presidency. Even George Bush Jr who is probably the weakest president amongst the weakest Harding George Bush to junior but when you but when you read about Ronald Reagan it's sad to me how how he had he not succumbed to the pressures of corporate America how do you know he had he found within himself what f.d.r. Found which was a deeper sense of justice which he kind of got there towards the end of his life nobody earlier I mean he was a president of the Screen Actors Guild he was you know but he no but he was he was also though he went along with the communist Chinese stuff though he he went along with the f.b.i. He did a lot of questionable things and it was because he was a discerning enough and what a loss what it what he could have been had he not embraced the corporate way of looking at things now I think towards the end of his life when he became much more open to determined and to trying to work things out with the Russians I think to his credit he got there but you know the other side was he this led a really happy life he like to play golf he bought his wife on the red averse received by expensive bottles of wine they had fun all the time they they enjoyed themselves and they were you know he did things like when when when the Park Service said the Beach Boys couldn't play at the at the Washington Monument He said Of course you can play the watch because he was a part of Hollywood sure you know so so you know and you can't be totally closed minded to be part of Hollywood but you see people like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart all that crazy stuff he did with the Air Force and the NORAD and all that you know and you just think gosh the Jimmy Stewart of. Because we're talking about Co bear people that are involved in politics you know the Great was over the over the life and I think that you see the ones that have all this talent. You know during World War 2 Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were extremely effective at raising money for war bonds and very effective it at you know you know supporting what President Roosevelt was trying to do imagine having someone who really light in the White House and Hollywood behind them because they're all trying to raise America up to to its greatness and I think that's really what you're saying is that these these people that have the gift of communication like John Stewart and Colbert you know it's not just it's not just communication but it's more than that it's the ability to and I think you. Are is a form of genius just like music or sports I mean John Gardner in his book talked about the various kinds of genius more than just mathematical verbal and he expands at the 7 I would I would go beyond Garner and I would include humor I would say Robin Williams or Jonathan Winters There's a genius there where they look at the logical world and then tweak it a little bit and you have to have that genius in your d.n.a. To do that Jon Stewart can do it Stephen Colbert can do it what about an Ace Ventura. No I don't well possibly I tell you what I won't name the genius is all just say there's a category amongst genius and humor is one of them it's a powerful tool I mean I've used it I've used in the courtroom sometimes it scares the dickens out of my clients all I'll just I'll share one little anecdote and it was it was my 1st year of practice you know it was like 3033 years ago when front of a judge. Who was having a bad day and most of his days were bad days anyhow and every attorney in there was just kind o