No-talking left
Yesterday (and on rebroadcast today) linguist and Language Log contributor Geoff Nunberg appeared on the Colbert Report to talk about his new book Talking Left (see discussion on LL here and here). Comedy Central’s website has the majority of the interview, though they omit the funny intro where Colbert makes his way through the entire subtitle, and a few of the first questions, including the inevitable, so, what do you linguists do anyway?.
I’m not entirely sure how to characterize the interview. I have to say, it was not one of the most entertaining I’ve seen on the show. However, it was better than many; I generally find the celebrity interview portion the least entertaining, unless the celebrity isn’t afraid of bringing the heat. Geoff is more mild-mannered, so the dynamic was more one-sided, and thus less interesting to watch. Colbert did a great job of giving a mini-version of the pro-war cliche-fortified talking points, flourishing stay the course and support the troops in every other sentence. I’ve never seen Geoff hold office hours with an annoyingly persistant student, but I’ll venture to say that’s what it might be like.