Yes, I'm still watching; no, I can't quite explain why.

Habit?

Hope?

An occasional great moment?

Is that enough explanation?

I don't hate it by a long shot, I just quit looking forward to it since the ghastly All Stars debacle, found I was compelled to watch The Apprentice before it as soon as that show got started, now it's often Saturday or even Sunday before I get to it.

And feel the itch to hit the FF through much of it. I haven't yet, but I'm wanting to.

It doesn't help they seem to have purposely cast this as The Dumbass Season. They've always included dummies in the casts, but this season they've packed the jungle with them. Not so much the women, but man after man after man.

The two baboons bouncing their chests off each other like a couple of apes from a Diane Fosse documentary this week was the ultimate nadir. Not that it didn't make for a great laugh, but it was one of the few bright moments these morons have provided. The rest of the season, we're stuck with them acting just as stoopid, but without the unintentional comedy.

(Intentional by the editors of course, just not the actors.)

This show was getting dull enough already.

Hey, where's the great TV? Seems in such shrinking supply lately.

Hmmmm. Maybe anyone guilty of following a brilliant with a but deserves it.

Wow, what a revolting phrase to type. I kind of make myself want to vomit just for having written it. I'd like to believe I live in the world where people who say things like that ought to be metaphorically shot.

But . . .

But, The Colbert Report.

Yes, I'm still chucking every time he pronounces it pronounced "The Col-bear Ra-poor". I'm chuckling all the way through. Chuckling constantly, laughing my ass off, in fact.

It's not just funny, it's brilliantly funny. Funnier even than The Daily Show at the moment, and more biting, more incisive. And man, that's saying a lot.

But kind of one note, don't you think?

Not exactly, but kinda. I mean, every joke has about three sides to it, but they all tend along the same lines. So it's one chord?

I'm still loving it. Still, I say, after a week. But four shows in, I'm wondering the same thing I was after the first one, except I'm wondering it incessantly: How soon before I'm incredibly tired of this? How much do I really need?

The great smart thing about The Daily Show is that they mix it up so much. I don't really need 30 (22?) minutes of indictment of the press and the politicos every night, but they come at it in all sorts of different ways.

Even so, I'm kinda ready for a rest when they take a week off--I just wish they could figure out not to schedule them during disasters like Katrina. We needed them that week.

Which brings us to the other problem. Four half hours a week was prolly a bit more than I really needed of The Daily Show, despite its brilliance. Eight half hours of this stuff? Not sure I've got room for all that. Especially with four of the same exquisite chord.

I have always thought Stephen Colbert was the best thing about The Daily Show. Yes, prolly even nosing out Jon Stewart, in a very tight race. And I always prayed for more.

But this much?

I could be wrong. I hope so.

So South Park finally returned this week.

Kind of a disappointment. They did a Katrina episode after all. (They had told Charlie Rose they had big reservations about it in a wonderful appearance last month. (The link is to my post about them, not some dumb CR site. hahaha.)

Should have stuck to their instincts.

Was it just way too late or just way too lame? Seemed like one kinda pointless joke milked the entire episode. Until . . .

Well, their old standby, the jew joke. Somehow, they always manage to get away with them. Partly because the joke is actually on the anti-semites rather than the jews.

At least at first. They always seem to find a way to have it both ways. Skewer all sides. And that's why we love them.

Anyway, right near the end, one hysterical scene.

Pretty boring road to get there though.

Hopefully they're just revving their creative juices back up. This has been the rare show that's still stunning (nine?) years later.