{"id":414254,"date":"2010-03-10T23:56:26","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T04:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2010-03-10T23:56:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T04:56:26","slug":"report-from-colbert-cosmic-variance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/414254","title":{"rendered":"Report from Colbert | Cosmic Variance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reporting back from a hotel in midtown Manhattan, having <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2010\/02\/11\/colbert-nation\/\">made it through<\/a> the <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/home\">Colbert Report<\/a> basically unscathed. In fact the experience was great from beginning to end. <strong>Update<\/strong>: here is the clip.<\/p>\n<table style='font:11px arial;color:#333;background-color:#f5f5f5;' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'>\n<tbody>\n<tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5;' valign='middle'>\n<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a rel=\"nofollow\" style='color:#333;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;'  href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com'>The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\n<td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px;text-align:right;font-weight:bold;'>Mon &#8211; Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'>\n<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2' style='color:#333;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;'>Sean Carroll<a rel=\"nofollow\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style='height:14px;background-color:#353535;' valign='middle'>\n<td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px;width:360px;overflow:hidden;text-align:right;'><a rel=\"nofollow\" style='color:#96deff;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;'  href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/'>www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign='middle'>\n<td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><iframe class=\"embeddedvideo\" src='http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:267142' width='360' height='301' type='application\/x-shockwave-flash'><\/iframe><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'>\n<td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'>\n<table style='margin:0px;text-align:center;' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'>\n<tr valign='middle'>\n<td style='padding:3px;width:33%;'><a rel=\"nofollow\" style='font:10px arial;color:#333;text-decoration:none;'  href='http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/colbertreport\/full-episodes'>Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\n<td style='padding:3px;width:33%;'><a rel=\"nofollow\" style='font:10px arial;color:#333;text-decoration:none;'  href='http:\/\/www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>\n<td style='padding:3px;width:33%;'><a rel=\"nofollow\" style='font:10px arial;color:#333;text-decoration:none;'  href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/special\/colbert-vancouver-games'>Skate Expectations<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Monday morning I talked on the phone with Emily Lazar, a researcher for the show. I was really impressed right from the start: it was clear that she wanted to make it easy for me to get across some substantive message, within the relatively confining parameters of what is basically a comedy show. From start to finish everyone I dealt with was a consummate pro.<\/p>\n<p>We got picked up at our hotel in a car that brought us to the Colbert studio, and hustled inside under relatively high security &#8212; people whispering into lapel microphones that we had arrived and were headed to the green room. Very exciting. The green room was actually green, which is apparently unusual. I got pep talks from a couple of the staff people, who encouraged me to keep things as simple as possible. They made an interesting point about scientists: they make the perfect foils for Stephen&#8217;s character, since they actually rely on facts rather than opinions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/files\/2010\/03\/colbert.jpg\" alt=\"colbert\" title=\"colbert\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4302\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stephen himself dropped by to say hi, and to explain the philosophy of his character &#8212; I suppose there still are people out there who could be guests on the show who haven&#8217;t ever actually watched it. Namely, he&#8217;s a complete idiot, and it&#8217;s my job to educate him. But it&#8217;s <em>not<\/em> my job to be funny &#8212; that&#8217;s his bailiwick. The guests are encouraged to be friendly and sincere, but not pretend to be comedians.<\/p>\n<p>We got to sit in the audience as the early segments were taped, which were hilarious. I feel bad that my own interview is going to be the low point of the show, laughs-wise. But I went out on cue, and fortunately I wasn&#8217;t at all jittery &#8212; too much going on to have time to get nervous, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>I had some planned responses for what I thought were the most obvious questions. Of which, he asked zero. Right off the bat Colbert managed to catch me off guard by asking a much more subtle question than I had anticipated &#8212; isn&#8217;t the early universe actually very disorderly? That would be true if you ignored gravity, but a big part of my message is that you can&#8217;t ignore gravity! The problem was, I had promised myself that I wouldn&#8217;t use the word &#8220;entropy,&#8221; resisting the temptation to lapse into jargon. But he had immediately pinpointed an example where the association of &#8220;low entropy&#8221; with &#8220;orderly&#8221; wasn&#8217;t a perfect fit. So I had to go back on my pledge and bring up entropy, although I didn&#8217;t exactly give a careful definition.<\/p>\n<p>As everyone warned me, the whole interview went by in an absolute flash, although it really lasts about five minutes. There was a fun moment when we agreed that &#8220;Wrong Turn Into Yesterday&#8221; would make a great title for a progressive-rock album. Overall, I think I could have done a better job at explaining the underlying science, but at least I hope I successfully conveyed the spirit of the endeavor. We&#8217;ll have to see how it comes across on TV.<\/p>\n<p>I shouldn&#8217;t end without including some good words about the bag of swag. Not only does every guest get a goodie bag that includes a bottle of excellent tequila, it also includes a $100 gift certificate for <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2009\/10\/01\/good-deeds\/\">Donors Choose<\/a>. How awesome is that?<\/p>\n<p>And as we left the studio, there were some young audience members lurking around hoping for a glimpse of the great man himself. They had to settle for me, but they sheepishly asked if I would pose for a picture with them. Not yet having perfected my diva act, I happily complied. I hope they take away some great memories of the night. <\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/SkoVcIXELCcDemqOBtRGnPXvk9k\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/SkoVcIXELCcDemqOBtRGnPXvk9k\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap><\/a><br \/>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/SkoVcIXELCcDemqOBtRGnPXvk9k\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/SkoVcIXELCcDemqOBtRGnPXvk9k\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/CosmicVarianceBlog\/~4\/uBhlNZEV7a8\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/DiscoverMag\/~4\/WglAbfSL7Gc\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reporting back from a hotel in midtown Manhattan, having made it through the Colbert Report basically unscathed. In fact the experience was great from beginning to end. Update: here is the clip. The Colbert Report Mon &#8211; Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c Sean Carroll www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations Monday morning I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}