Funny men

Reports to the contrary notwithstanding, Stephen Colbert's address to the White House correspondents' dinner last Saturday was indeed funny.

But amid the hoopla over the speech, one criticism has emerged that I happen to agree with: Colbert's studio audiences are insufferable. His amusing show on Comedy Central, "The Colbert Report," is marred by the ecstatic whoops of an audience that sounds a lot like the whooping studio audiences at tapings of "The Daily Show." The effect is like that of a grating sitcom laugh track; off-camera, do the spectators make the hand gesture from the old Arsenio Hall show? Those audiences are the main reason I don't routinely tune in to either show.

But I religiously watch MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," which features satire as scathing as Colbert's or Stewart's. (When discussing his feuding partner Bill O'Reilly, Olbermann sometimes shows an image of steaming falafel behind him, with no explanation.) But "Countdown" is also a real live news show, and Olbermann has the resources of a network news division at his disposal.

And there is no studio audience. When Olbermann cracks jokes, the only response you hear is the quiet giggling of his staff. Which somehow makes the jokes funnier, to these ears.