Last night, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart concluded the last of their Operation Silent Thunder Fluffy Bunny Macho Kick-Ass Enduring Fluffernutter reports, in which correspondent and comedian Rob Riggle filed stories while embedded with the troops in Iraq. Of course, the big reveal from last night's show was that the final report wasn't really even close to "live in Iraq," as Riggle made an appearance in the studio to smooch the anchor desk and empty his pockets of sand. But, it begged the question: Just how not live weren't Riggle's reports?
As it turns out, while enormous pains were taken to both promote the liveness--and the "reallyness" of the reporting, Riggle's reporting turned out to be really not-live. Great lengths were taken to uphold the verisimilitude of Riggle's appearances of live-in-Iraqness--including grainy looking footage, emulated satellite delays, a precious "Be safe, Rob" from Jon Stewart each night (though, in fairness, NYC can get awful edgy), and a complicating bit of site-gaggery between Riggle and co-correspondent Aasif Mandvi that contrasted Mandvi's green-screen reporting with Riggle "Really Reporting" in Iraq--Riggle's precise live-in-Iraqitude was kept from the viewing audience.
But Riggle had been seen back in New York City as early as Wednesday. That's when Patrick Waldo, the blogger behind "aLive In New York," went to the Daily Show taping to "see what all the fuss about this Barack Obama guy is" and ended up finding out the truth about Riggle's reporting:
As soon as I saw Riggle come out today and get in position for the bit I thought they would pretend he was in Iraq and then have him walk behind Jon or do something in Jon's shot that would indicate he was back in New York. But they made no mention of it in the "live report" and didn't say anything about it to the audience. Jon even said "Be safe" at the end of the segment. Before Riggle left he gave a mischievous smile and a wave to the audience.
Comedy Central's own press release, touting Operation Silent Thunder, manages to read today as having been truthful all along while at the same time cagey enough to have fooled anyone reading it before today. It sure fooled the Associated Press and Fox News, who wrote on Monday, August 20th that Riggle was "Scheduled to be back in New York this weekend" when, in fact, as a source at The Daily Show confirmed earlier this week, he was back in New York on Sunday the 19th. Riggle likely learned to appreciate the finer points of operating artillery during his own military career: "A Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Riggle served in Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, and received more than 19 medals and ribbons, including the Combat Action Ribbon."
And that's no fake. We think, anyway. I guess this is what you get for trusting the most trusted name in fake news!
Related:The Daily Show Hires A Marine [ETP]