Texas Town Responds After Colbert Calls It An "Incorporated Outhouse"

CANTON, Texas — Stephen Colbert's one-man campaign against towns named Canton has its latest target firing back. A city councilman in Canton, Texas, joked that he would "mash his nose" after the comedian referred to the town as an "incorporated outhouse."

"What does that sucker know about it? He's never been here anyway," Councilman John Fuller said in a story Friday in the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

In an ongoing gag on his Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report," Colbert has been taking pot shots at various towns named Canton. It began when he referred to a Georgia town as "the crappy Canton."

Colbert then referred to Canton, Kan., with an unprintable epithet, and referred to Canton, S.D., as "North Dakota's dirty ashtray."

Cantons in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Ohio have so far escaped Colbert's ire.

Leaders of the Texas town of Canton, which has a population of about 5,100, invited Colbert to the town's monthly flea market _ which, according to a city Web site, harkens back to Texas' frontier traditions, "when it was common to trade a rifle for a good hunting dog."

"Canton is known worldwide," City Manager Andy McCuistion said of the town, located about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. "You can go anywhere in the world, and people will say, `Canton? Yeah, I know where that is. It's where that big flea market is.'"

Comments

[Whatevah]

I live in Canton, Ohio, and I am jealous. Our town is a MUCH bigger disgrace than those other Cantons. When it comes to eyesores, depressed economies, and flea-bitten dogs, we're Number One. What's the problem, Colbert? Afraid of a few drunken bums?

[littlepuffycloud]

Colbert is fearless like Andy Kaufman was. People don't know how to take him sometimes. Hilarious.

[BlueOnBlue]

It was a funny joke and it gets funnier each time someone like that councilman or the City Manager takes it seriously. Cantonites seem to be missing the gene which allows you to recognize satire.

[NotMcCain]

The City Manager was joking, right?

It sounded like a joke that plays right to Colbert's point, which makes it even funnier.

As for Colbert? He's amazing.

[larry278]

Maybe Canton's city manager is a city mangler.

[Pippilangstrumpf]

There is also a Canton in Maryland, right outside of Baltimore.

[shengirl]

It'll probably be next. Yeah, the Texans don't seem to have any idea at all that this is humor, and that it actually might be good for tourism. Can't you see it? "The American Canton Tour"? Have your "passport" stamped at every Canton you visit. No, most conservatives seem to have no sense of humor.

[FaceYourFears]

Colbert is SICK, to me he's much funnier than Stewart. Jon has the better jokes but Colbert has the best sense of humor.....­he's funny even when he's not trying.

[larry278]

Is Canton, Oh still a leaky condom or am I thinking of Akron, Oh? Ohio has a lot of pus seeping scabs under its part of the rust belt. Canton, Tx should pride itself as having out houses. I've been some places in the USA which don't have inside plumbing or outhouses. You have to go commando in those places if you have to go. Going on a cold, windy day is a challenge.

[barackobama4prez]

lol

[faust2001]

Tesxasyesfan, you should write for Colbert. Good stuff.

[rh654]

Any town that is proud of their "Flea Market" must indeed be an interesting place....

[craneman]

He will really piss off the Chinese who live in Canton.

[dontpanic23]

Oh, that's good. Thank you.

I'm waiting for him to attack the stinky Canton. It was either Ohio or W.VA that had a Canton when I was a kid that's main olfactory attraction was a paper mill. It was famous in our family for making me barf up the car every time we went through it. 1960s paper mill towns stank to high heaven, as we said back then. Not sure if that's improved because I haven't been back.

[JScott]

Oh and up it even more, do the Truth or Consequences NM thing (google it) (and more recently the DISH Tx thing), any Canton that renames their town Colbert, he MUST visit it (as a start).

[barackobama4prez]

It's a freaking joke. I live in Texas and didn't even know we had a canton here.

[JohnFromCensornati]

I hope he's kidding. He can't possibly think it's a winning proposition to go up against Colbert. Can he?

[texasyesfan]

Yes, Canton TX does have a huge flea market, it's called First Monday Trade Days (its Fri. Sat. Sun before the first Monday of the month.) It is frigging HUGE ,more than a million visitors on some weekends. You can find anything you are looking for, including but not limited to the biggest collection of Red Necks on the face of the earth, most of them probably don't know who Mr. Colbert is and wouldn't know satire if it was loaded in the back of a Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel Dually and repeatedly driven back and forth across their cousin_in_laws sisters boyfriend who just got out of the Beto unit for having improper relations with his Pit Bull.

[FrictionSoul]

lol. Thanks for that. Go write for Colbert.

[ibivi]

Colbert always manages to get himself in the news. It seems to be his raison d'etre. It is becoming tiresome though. Why people even bother to respond to this silliness is beyond me. It is a stupid joke folks!

[NotMcCain]

He likes to change it up with little bits like this. 30 seconds or so before or after some brilliant satire (see "The Word").

He and his staff also have a terrific breadth of knowledge and associate things with other things in ways that are so unexpected and funny.

Smart people, making a smart show. Funniest thing on television, imo.

[brendanm]

The only way this gag will continue to be funny is if he really ups the insults. For the next Canton, he really has to sh*t all over them and then spit in their faces. Since it all started with talking up Canton, Ohio, he should demand a key to the city.

But so far it has been hilarious. After he insulted Canton, KS, I was flipping through the channels and saw on CNN Headline News (which I would never watch but by accident) that they had actually sent a camera crew to get reactions from residents. I knew then that this could be a classic running gag. Let's hope they pull it off.