What Daily Show bit am I remembering?

June 12, 2011 7:53 PM

When Colbert was still on The Daily Show he did a bit pretending to be, I believe Hunter S Thompson when covering the beginnings of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. He wore a safari type hat that was pinned to one side, along with a cravat or cravat-like scarf. Can anyone find this? I'm sure I saw it on thedailyshow.com, but it might have come from youtube.

If you can't find it, or even if you can, does anyone remember who the parody was? I don't remember Hunter S Thompson wearing the outfit he was wearing, but it felt very Hunter S Thompson-esque. I also don't remember him covering any wars, but I'm far from a Thompson expert. Thanks!

posted by geoff. to media & arts (5 answers total)

If memory serves, he was pretending to be Geraldo, back when Geraldo. Colbert's get-up was an exact copy of Geraldo's Afganistan war outfit, beige reporter vest, hat pinned up etc., and in one specific bit I remember, he was making fun of Geraldo's claims that he was in the middle of the fighting, when he had, in fact, been nowhere near it. Can't find the clip though.
posted by melgy at 9:23 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

"...back when Geraldo was a war correspondent", the end of that first sentence should have read. Need to learn to preview....
posted by melgy at 9:24 PM on June 12, 2011

Doing a quick search at www.thedailyshow.com for "colbert war correspondent", I found this one in a minute or two.

On preview: sounds like it might be the one that melgy is referring to.
posted by intermod at 9:29 PM on June 12, 2011

Here's another clip with the same Geraldo shtick.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:13 AM on June 13, 2011

Thanks! The particular clip I was thinking of was him out in the desert, with the hat and doing the schtick. They have only a few clips of the bit, and I'm sure they did it for much longer. Thanks!
posted by geoff. at 5:26 PM on June 13, 2011