Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Eat the Press is sufficently impressed with Colbert's audience interactivity:

The people behind "The Colbert Report" may be the smartest minds in televison: While everyone else frets about YouTube, web TV, and platform integration Stephen Colbert & Co are already galvanizing the online to action and integrating fan content into the show, to hilarious effect. It is, in a word, freaking brilliant.

Never mind citizen journalism, thanks to last night's episode "The Colbert Report" has become the first program to feature fan content [ed: that this clueless chick has seen, nevermind the "send in your phone vid stuff on other shows" or, well, all of Gore's project -- hell, America's Funniest Home Videos are in that category. The point here is much like Nine Inch Nails and Brian Eno and David Byrne offering their raw tracks to the fans to mix and send back, Colbert has appropriated the remix culture of the new nerd or Web 2.0] — and open the floodgates to more. Last week, Colbert did a hilarious rendition of a Jedi knight, whipping a lightsaber around in front of a greenscreen (see it here). Last night, Colbert announced the "Stephen Colbert Greenscreen Challenge" where members of the Colbert Nation (a website as well as a movement) were invited to try their hand at filling in the rest. Said Colbert:

"A week ago I showed off some of my light saber skills in front of a green screen. Well, all over the internets, you heroes took that footage and added in backgrounds and action. Well, Nation, in order to honor your efforts, we're going to start showing your bold depictionism of my heroic fight. "

For some reason, it really doesn't suprise me. Colbert is a LotR watching, Star Wars toy in office having, Sci-Fi reading full on nerd, and I get the feeling he is just interacting with his fans the way that seems natural to him.

Now, if you missed the "Green Screen" competition he is having, I highly recommend these two: Stephen Colbert: Protector of Freedom and Stephen Colbert vs The Star Wars Kid.