The Daily Show: June 5, 2007

Scooter Libby is saying bye-bye for 30 months. I can understand why they kept this one fairly short. The writers are probably going to have a lot more fun with Libby in the next few episodes.

"Father of the Bribe": Some sweet indictment action on William Jefferson. Ahh, I was wondering when they were going to make another Jimmy Dean joke (Money & Sausage on a Stick -- delish). Also, I never, never want to hear Jon Stewart say "hot in herre" like that again. Never.

"Hasta la Visa": I actually laughed-out-loud when Bush talked about "empty political rhetoric." And then I groaned, very loudly, when the talking hand popped up. It was cute and all, but I think those kind of jokes belong better on The Colbert Report. It seems like The Daily Show is starting to slip on their faux-seriousness. Or maybe it's a little late to say "start".

"Callous in Wonderland": Oof. A rather weak Rob Riggle report about Anaheim's plans for affordable housing right next to Disneyland. When is Riggle going to get a character for his reporter-self? Rob Corddry was the not-so-tough former frat boy, Steve Carell was the incredibly troubled and awkward crybaby, and so on and so on. I hate that the new guys -- yes, I still consider most of these correspondents new guys -- have, for the most part, failed to do this. Building a good character will probably improve Riggle's reports ten-fold. Actually, I'm not sure about that, but at this point, they need to try anything they can.

The night's guest was Knocked Up's Paul Rudd, dressed in his best penguin suit. Tony Award jokes, baby chatter, joking flirtation. I'm not sure what I was really expecting, but I was surprised that this interview was all over the place and... a bit of a mess, really. But I forgave them because, well, it's Paul Rudd. Man, you know what bothers me about that guy? He's too attractive to be funny. Like, he's not Colbert-attractive, where the humor makes up a huge part of the appeal, he's actually leading man attractive. And that's not fair. Pretty people should not be allowed to maintain good looks and an excellent sense of humor at the same time. Damn you, Paul Rudd!

Ahem. Anyway...

Moment of Zen: Bush likes to talk. Like. This.

The God Machine made an appearance on The Colbert Report! Yes, the proper "bee-boo-boo" God Machine! And I was giddy! And excited! And also kind of frustrated. The last time Samantha Bee did "This Week In God", she had a crappy spinny cube graphic serve as The God Machine. C'mon, Colbert. You had your fun with the Machine all those years. It's time to let it go.