Eat The Press

Stephen Colbert, Internet Pied Piper

Huffington Post |  Rachel Sklar |  Posted Friday September 29, 2006 at 01:26 PM

This is in no way to imply that hordes of "Colbert Report" viewers are rats, but it is truly amazing what Stephen Colbert has been able to inspire with his "Stephen Colbert's Greenscreen Challenge," wherein viewers are invited to take this footage of Colbert rockin' the light saber Jedi-style and use it as the centerpiece for their own "bold depictions of my heroic fight," as Colbert called it last month when he announced the Challenge on-air. The results have been stunning — all manner of creativity unleashed via YouTube, including the one shown here which Colbert aired last night (note: They seem to be identical but this version has different music than what's linked at Colbert Nation). YouTube has 36 results for the search for "greenscreen challenge colbert" including his one of Stephen fighting his arch-nemesis, bears, and this one of "Obi-Wan Colbertno" which cleverly incorporates other moments from the Report.

This is fan fiction taken to a whole new level — as we've noted before, the genius of Colbert is that he knows how to use this content and drive the quality up by providing an incredible platform. This is quality stuff, really really funny, and if it doesn't represent an experiment in a new form of content-generation for Comedy Central, it should. They've got plenty of open timeslots, and clearly there's some good stuff out there.

In other news, we also noted last month that Colbert had kind of Vulcan-like ears, and noticed that yet again last night. So we're issuing the "Stephen Colbert Vulcan Ears Challenge" and inviting viewers to email us photos and video of Colbert's ears looking particularly cute and Vulcan-like. Extra points if you can somehow figure out how to superimpose him into that ultra-hot makeout with Lieutenant Uhuru. Or maybe just rubbing Patrick Stewart's adorable bald head. We'd like to see that.