What better way to close out the month of March than with the Colbert Report's shout-out to Women's History Month? Anyone who missed it should run, not walk, to the Comedy Central Web site and enjoy this slice of bombastic brilliance from last night's broadcast.
"March is Women's History Month," Colbert begins, "and to be quite frank, we dropped the ball. This is our last show in March, and we've only mentioned Women's History Month... never. Which is really a shame, because we've built this great opening." At this point, a History Channel-style logo appears, featuring a lot female symbols, plus photos of the Virgin Mary and Miss Piggy.
"Now, if only to justify the cost of those graphics," he continues, "we want to pay tribute to women all over the world tonight. But, we're kind of short on time. So instead, we're honoring the one woman who encapsulates them all." And we get a great montage of TV news reporters saying the name of this everywoman, who turns out to be pan-ethnic CNN anchor and Daily Show favorite Soledad O'Brien. Colbert tallies up "just how many women is she?" noting that O'Brien's ancestry is Cuban, Irish, Australian and possibly Italian: "Soledad spans the globe!" (He also suggests O'Brien's appeal is so universal that it's not hard to imagine that her being Vietnamese, Dutch or even "a part cephalopod.")
To sum up, he says, "Well... there it is, our salute to Women's History Month. You go, girls!"
As usual, Colbert's bluster contains a special lesson for all of us, and in this case, we learn that we could have devoted more ink to women's history. The least we can do is link to a non-Soledad information source, like the National Women's History Project. (The collection of audio clips is especially cool.) Happy Women's History Month, Broadsheeters!
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