The very funny Colbert tells Alternet that Stone Phillips is a stiff but Geraldo has a great sense of mission:
ALTERNET: When you were developing your "super straight guy" look and sound, which actual media personalities did you model yourself after?
COLBERT: In terms of who I channel, my natural inclination was Stone Phillips, who has the greatest neck in journalism. And he's got the most amazingly severe head tilt at the end of tragic statements, like "there were no...survivors." He just tilts his head a bit on that "survivors" as if to say "It's true. It's sad. There were none."
ALTERNET: Plus, his name has that sort of Republican porn star vibe to it.
COLBERT: Exactly, if it were Stone Fill-Up then it would really be a porn star name. And then I also used Geraldo Rivera, because he's got this great sense of mission. He just thinks he's gonna change the world with this report. He's got that early-'70s hip trench coat "busting this thing wide open" look going on. So those two guys.
Colbert gives credit where credit is due to Bill O'Reilly--sort of:
ALTERNET: What percentage of your student viewers are stoned when they watch "The Daily Show"? Bill O'Reilly seemed to think your viewership contained quite a large number of stoned slackers.
COLBERT: I'd say...ahhh...This is on a scale of 1-100, right? I think the percentage is based on whatever channel it is on in the cable market, like in New York, we're channel 49, so 49% of people are high while watching. In South Carolina, where I'm from, we are on a channel in the low 70s, so around 70% of people are stoned.
