Yesterday, the Internet exploded with the rumor that Kanye West had died (possibly in a car accident). Of course, this is not the case — it turns out West was the latest victim of a death rumor on the Internet. The rumor was immediately refuted by West's girlfriend Amber Rose via Twitter. "This 'RIP Kanye West' topic is not funny and it's not true!" she wrote. "It's in extreme poor taste to have that as a trendy topic. It's totally disrespectful to make up a story like this we're all human ... and we all make mistakes and to say someone died cuz of a mistake is ridiculous. You wouldn't want someone to say that about you."
But West himself hasn't responded to the rumor himself. Though he has updated his blog several times, he has not mentioned it there. And his spokesperson hasn't made a statement either. Though it hardly seems like this is the sort of thing West has to respond to, a number of other celebrities have had a bit of fun with the false rumors that they had passed away. Case in point: When Jeff Goldblum was rumored to have died in some sort of accident in New Zealand (a rumor that broke the same day that Michael Jackson died), he went on "The Colbert Report" to report on the fact that he had not, in fact, passed on.
It was a hilarious bit that Kanye could easily latch onto. He even has a standing history with the Comedy Central host, as they have kept up a tongue-in-cheek feud since he challenged Kanye West to an iTunes sales duel last year. (Check out the complete history here.)
Kanye hasn't been seen much since the Video Music Awards, but why not make a comeback on one of the most-watched shows in late night?
A few months ago, the Flaming Lips got perhaps the biggest honor of their long and tripped out career when "Do You Realize??" was named the official rock song of the state of Oklahoma. The band visited "The Colbert Report" last night to play "Convinced of the Hex," the first single from their forthcoming album Embryonic, but first host Stephen Colbert sat down to chat with Lips frontman and mastermind Wayne Coyne about the strange honor.
"The song has these lyrics: 'Do you realize that happiness makes you cry? Do you realize that everyone you know some day will die?' How bad are things in Oklahoma?" the host asked. "That's a far cry from 'The corn is as high as an elephant's eye.'" But in his typical positive fashion, Coyne explained the the song — which was a hit single from the band's 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots — explained that the tune is meant to remind everybody that life is fleeting and that love is all that matters. "When you read it on a page like that, it sounds kind of bleak," Coyne said. "I think the song is uplifting, because the worse regret people have is that someone they know dies and they never got the chance to say how much they loved them. I'm here to say life is short and precious." Colbert responded, "That might be a nice motto to go on a license plate." Want to get an early listen of Embryonic? It's streaming in its entirety at the Colbert Nation Web site.
Just as we are doing in the MTV Newsroom, "The Colbert Report" host Stephen Colbert is searching for this summer's official jam. He tackled this important issue on his show in a segment he called "MeTunes." During the piece, he look at two of the season's biggest hits: Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" and Jeremih's "Birthday Sex."
Unfortunately, he didn't find anything he liked. He chastised the Black Eyed Peas track for not having nearly enough product placement in the video ("You missed so many advertunities!") and thought that "Birthday Sex" was a cop-out because it combined two things that people already love (in an alternative universe, it could have been called "Cupcake Reacharound"). Ultimately, neither song scored high on his scale (though the actual concept of birthday sex scored through the roof). Check out the full segment — including Colbert's dream mash-up — below.
By Eric Ditzian
After much hype — most of it joyfully, shamelessly self-created — Stephen Colbert touched down inside Iraq for the start of a week's worth of shows live from one Saddam Hussein's former palaces.
Monday night's pre-taped episode of "The Colbert Report" showcased the host at his bloviating best, heartily congratulating himself for his bravery one minute and aiming his satirical arrows at the usual political targets the next. Starting off with a cold open sketch that had Stephen kidnapped and secreted away to an undisclosed location, he arrived in Iraq only to be pelted — à la former President Bush — with shoes and to learn, much to his chagrin, that no alcohol is served in the country.
The show itself took place in a large auditorium in front of an all-soldier audience. As is usually the case when late night shows travel away from their home studios and to larger venues, this airing of the "Report" suffered somewhat from a lack of intimacy. Forced to project his voice and play to the crowd rather than to the camera, Stephen's opening jokes came off less like a late night monologue than some massive graduation speech.
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He's won three Emmy Awards, has his own Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor and there's even a Virgin America airplane that bears his name. Now, Stephen Colbert's being honored with his own arachnid.
According to The Associated Press, East Carolina University associate professor Jason Bond has named a species of trapdoor spider Aptostichus stephencolberti, to pay tribute to the politically-minded comic and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Bond discovered the new species along the California coast last year.
Bond will appear on Colbert's show on Wednesday to present his findings. The move follows demands made by Colbert that a spider species be named after him; he made that demand after learning Bond had named a spider for rocker Neil Young.
