Better Know a District

Better Know a District (also known as BKAD) is a recurring segment on "The Colbert Report". It offers a humorous explanation of a different United States Congressional district in each segment and generally includes an interview with that district's member of Congress.

tructure

Each segment begins with basic information about a specific district, such as history and geography, and sometimes a humorously bizarre event that happened there. The district is also almost invariably referred to as "fightin'," as in the "Fightin' 11th." Most segments feature an interview with its Representative.

One comedic maneuver that Colbert commonly employs in these interviews, particularly when he is interviewing Democrats, is to ask the Representative a loaded question of either "George W. Bush: great President, or "the greatest" President?", or "the Iraq War: great war, or "the greatest" war?" When the interviewee, nearly always a Democrat, tries to express his or her disapproval of Bush, Colbert will usually state that the only choice is between "Great" or "Greatest," and nearly always states, "I'm gonna put you down for 'Great'." (He often refers to previous Democratic representatives who chose great, and shows clips from their interviews where they, too, refused to choose either 'great' or 'greatest,' and Colbert simply bulldozes over them saying, "I'm gonna put you down for 'Great'.")

After the interview, Colbert adds the segment to "the big board", a map of the entire United States with district lines drawn; the new district, shown in sparkling gold on a blue background, is usually very difficult or impossible to see due to its small size. Though many districts have been profiled, the map still looks largely vacant overall.

Reactions of interviewees

Although the interviews intentionally show most of the Representatives in an unflattering light, the Representatives' post-interview reactions have varied. Colbert's interview with Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank has resulted in Frank lambasting the program (he was quoted on a later "Report"), [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/10/interviews_no_laughing_matter_for_local_notables/ Interviews no laughing matter for local notables] at "Boston Globe"] while the interview with Virginia Representative Jim Moran pleased the Congressman — he told the "New York Times" that he thought Colbert "let me off kind of light." ["Laugh, and the Voters Laugh With You, or at Least at You", "New York Times", Week in Review p.1, Feb. 26, 2006.]

California Representative Brad Sherman appeared to be in on the joke. [ [http://www.wonkette.com/politics/television/stephen-colberts-bipartisan-outreach-effort-158335.php Stephen Colbert's Bipartisan Outreach Effort] at Wonkette.com] He claimed not to know that his San Fernando Valley district was home to the pornography industry, gave an apparently long and dull explanation of a tax proposal, and participated in the making of a "pornographic video" with Colbert and impersonated a robot.

"The Washington Times" published a story on the show stating that "several lawmakers said doing the spoof spot on 'The Colbert Report' on TV's Comedy Central actually has raised their profiles back home"; [ [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060703-123222-3556r.htm Politicians relish comic's needling] "The Washington Times"] however, the Los Angeles Times has reported that due to the fact that many House members have "stumbled badly" during this segment, others are not risking "the price for looking stupid" and are passing up the opportunity to be on Colbert's "Better Know A District".cite news
last = Puzzanghera
first = Jim
title = Los Angeles Times
work = Running for office? Better run from Colbert
date = 2006-10-22
url = http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-fi-colbert22oct22,0,3608221.story
accessdate = 2006-10-23 ]

On his November 7, 2006 show, Colbert lauded the fact that every one of the 28 actual congressmen whom he had interviewed by that point won election or reelection, which he claims to have been because they were given the "Colbert Bump".

Because of the way Colbert intentionally tries to skewer congressmen in his interviews, Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel has advised his fellow Democrats not to appear on the show, [ [http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Entertainment/20070315/615874.html 'Colbert Report' is lawmakers' Siren] , United Press International, Mar. 15, 2007] causing Colbert to make fun of Emanuel's advice on the show. However, Colbert now rarely features Better Know a District as a regular segment, suggesting many in Congress took Emanuel's advice.

District count

"Better Know a District" began as a "435-part series," 435 being the number of United States Congressional districts; however, on November 29, 2005, Colbert banned California's 50th District after his "friend" Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the 50th's Representative, pled guilty to receiving over $2 million in bribes and resigned his seat. California's 50th is now the lone member of the "Never Existed to Me" category, and the map showing the United States' Congressional districts now looks as if the district does not even exist. This brought the series to a "434-part series". After this, Texas' 22nd District was "retired" on April 4 2006 when Tom DeLay announced that he planned to leave Congress. Texas' 22nd was reinstated on June 8, 2006, with a "fake" interview in which video of DeLay in three previous interviews on other television networks was interspersed with questions from Colbert. The congressman's words were used out of context for comedic effect. The district was put back into retirement at the end of the segment.

In the show's first year, 34 districts were profiled.

The original district map lacked Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. During a phone-in segment, a resident of Michigan’s 1st reported this absence. Colbert informed the caller that he lived in Canada and if it was not on Colbert’s map, it was not a part of the United States. Upper Michigan was added to the map the next time it was shown.

During the interview with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Colbert established that the District of Columbia was not a state, and thus the District of Columbia was not a part of the United States. The "Better Know a District" map was updated with an asterisk notation to reflect this fact. Furthermore, the count of 435 districts (now 434) does not include non-voting districts, such as the District of Columbia; however, this segment was included in the district count, so despite the fact that Colbert continues to call it a 434-part series, it is really slated at this time to be 435 (again).

After the 2006 midterm elections, Colbert was invited to a meeting of the incoming House freshmen at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. During this encounter, he brought his total of "better-known districts" from 36 up to 51 (including a British parliamentary constituency); however, he did not count these as installments, and the count picked up at 37 with the next regular installment. The show aired on December 12, 2006.

List of districts "Better Known"

The districts covered thus far in "Better Know a District" are shown below. Segment numbers are listed starting with the 37th installment as they no longer correspond to the actual number of districts profiled. "The Washington Post" has reprinted transcripts from segments of "Better Know a District". [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/29/AR2006042900126.html The Colbert Rapport transcripts] ]

eason 1 (2005)

eason 4 (2008)

pin-offs

Better Know a Challenger

In the months leading up to the 2006 Congressional Elections, Colbert interviewed the challengers in several House races. On several occasions he made clear that the challenger was interviewed because the Incumbent declined to appear. However this was not always definitively the case. In these cases, the segment is known as "Better Know a Challenger," with different intro graphics.

After the segment, the district is colored on the "Better Know a District" map in goldenrod instead of amber, which is said to be the color all other districts are filled in with. It will be upgraded to amber if the challenger wins the 2006 election, or downgraded to cadmium yellow if they lose. Of course, it is nearly impossible to see the distinction between these shades on the map. Of the five challengers interviewed, only John Hall defeated an incumbent.

In the instance of New Jersey's 3rd congressional district, Colbert frequently referred to challenger Rich Sexton as representative Jim Saxton, a joke on the similarity of their names.

Better Know a Protectorate

On March 16, 2006, Colbert introduced a four-part series entitled "Better Know a Protectorate", focusing on the protectorates (more correctly, unincorporated territories) of the United States (which send non-voting delegates to Congress). The formula is relatively the same as with "Better Know a District." For the first segment, the same "Big Board" as BKAD was used, but was discontinued with the airing of the second segment. The United States Virgin Islands ("the fightin' virgins") was the protectorate that was covered and its delegate, Donna Christian-Christensen, was interviewed.

On April 26, 2007, Guam ("the fightin' Guam") was covered, including an interview with Madeleine Bordallo. A global map was used to produce the "Big Board", given Guam's distance from the continental United States. On August 7, 2007, American Samoa was featured ("the fightin' Samoa") and an interview with Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, Jr. was shown.

The remaining protectorate is presumably Puerto Rico which has yet to be featured (the Northern Mariana Islands do not have a nonvoting member, although they will after the 2008 elections).

Better Know a Founder

On March 1, 2006, Colbert introduced the "56-part" "Better Know a Founder", an in-depth look at the signers of the Declaration of Independence. For this series John Trumbull's painting of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
] is used as the template for the "Big Board".

Using the same formula as Better Know a District, Colbert's first subject in the series was a spotlight of an interview with "Battlin'" Ben Franklin; the actor Ralph Archbold portrayed Franklin for the interview, with both he and Colbert wearing period clothing. Most of the hallmarks of the original segment remained, either in an altered form (e.g., King George: Great king, or the "greatest" king?) or unchanged (e.g., Colbert asks Franklin if he had taken money from Jack Abramoff).

On November 15, 2006, the second installment of BKAF featured three actors portraying President Thomas Jefferson in an America's Next Top Model style segment, "America's Top Jefferson," with Project Runway mentor and producer Tim Gunn making an appearance.

Better Know a President

On May 17, 2006, Colbert introduced "Better Know a President", a 43-part series that would refresh the viewer's memory of the accomplishments of every President in United States history. The first president covered was Theodore Roosevelt, played by Roosevelt impersonator Jim Foot. In keeping with the running gags of the segment, he asked Roosevelt if the Spanish American War was merely a great war of American imperialism, or the "greatest" war of American imperialism. The second covered was Thomas Jefferson. Colbert talked to three different Jefferson impersonators, and judged which was the best.

Meet an Ally

On August 3rd, 2006 Stephen began the first segment in a series entitled "Meet an Ally" in which he examines nations part of the "Coalition of the Willing". He began the series by interviewing the ambassador of Palau, Stuart Beck.

Betterer Know a District

When Colbert shows an extended segment of an interview at a later date, he calls the segment "Betterer Know a District".

Better Know a Memory

On November 8th, 2006, some representatives who were profiled in Better Know a District and have since been re-elected were reintroduced in a short segment that immediately preceded the commercial breaks. A humorous clip from the BKAD interview would be shown and the words "RETURNED TO CONGRESS" would be rubber stamped onto the still image of the representative. The subjects reintroduced were Eliot L. Engel, Brad Sherman, Lynn Westmoreland, and Robert Wexler.

Better Know a Governor

On January 21, 2008, after the Republican South Carolina Primary, Colbert interviewed governor Mark Sanford as the easiest way to learn about all of South Carolinians.

Better Know a Lobby

On February 6, 2008, Colbert began what he called an "Infinite-long" segment called "Better Know a Lobbyist," where he interviews lobbyists. His first interview was with Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization. This was a two part interview, with the second half being broadcast on February 7. On March 12, 2008, it changed to "Better Know a Lobby" and became a 35,000 part long segment. The second interview was with Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, a lobby demanding the legalization of drugs. His third interview was with Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign, a gun control lobby.

References