Stephen Colbert

To use a word coined by Stephen Colbert, the writer and actor, there's a certain "truthiness" about Stephen Colbert, the character and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Indeed, Colbert the character, a right-wing blowhard on a one-man mission to reeducate the ignorant, is convincing enough that a recent Ohio State University study found that a majority of conservatives polled believed Colbert the man was one of them. The irony couldn't please him more. "I'm thrilled by it!"

A tip of the hat to comedian Stephen Colbert for his four-day tour in Baghdad to entertain U.S. troops and draw attention to the forgotten war, all the while trying to bridge the culture war at home. USO veteran Bob Hope must have turned in his grave when he heard that Colbert's faux conservative character was headed for the front, but once the show started, he surely rolled with a good belly laugh.

Stephen Colbert has taken "The Colbert Report" on the road to Baghdad this week, broadcasting Monday through Thursday from Saddam Hussein's former Al Faw Palace, now within the confines of Camp Victory. Appearing in a camouflage-patterned suit, with khaki shirt and tie, he carried a golf club as a kind of salute to Bob Hope, who did this sort of thing all the time, on TV and off.

It's no joke. Stephen Colbert has stepped in to help bail out the U.S. Olympic speedskating team, left in a lurch when the team's biggest annual cash sponsor, DSB Bank NV, declared bankruptcy in October. The Dutch bank DSB was to pay $300,000 for the sponsorship but failed to make any payments. So the team will turn closer to home for help, to Colbert, host of Comedy Cental's "The Colbert Report." "On their enormous billboard thighs, it will say, 'Colbert Nation,' " Colbert told the Associated Press.

Consider, if you will, the humble diving beetle. It's not a particularly glamorous creature, with its six legs and hard exoskeleton. A living being further removed from the distractions of show business could not be found, or so you might think until you run across the name of one recently discovered species: Agaporomorphus colberti . Yes, Stephen Colbert, the endlessly mocking and jibing host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," has...

When Stephen Colbert got a buzz cut from Gen. Raymond Odierno this week it was both the least and the most important moment in his four-night sojourn in Iraq. The Comedy Central star gave up a thick head of hair, and shelved his beloved blow-dryer. America won't soon forget the shtick -- Colbert forcibly shorn by the big, bald-headed general on "order" of the commander in chief, who beamed in via satellite TV to Camp Victory in Baghdad. That scored lots of laughs and something more.