Last night Comedy Central aired what is surely the most insane fever-dream of a yuletide treat since Chewbacca and Bea Arthur got the gang together for the Star Wars Holiday Special back in '78: A Colbert Christmas — The Greatest Gift of All.

Packed with drug jokes, double entendres, celebrity guests — and songs! — the hourlong meditation on all that is wrong with Christmas was utterly unhinged, bafflingly inappropriate and completely magical.

After the jump, catch guest star John Legend (in a park ranger outfit) serenading Colbert about the joys of blowing his sweet brown spice all over someone's face. Yes, that is a euphemism.

The album (original songs by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and David Javerbaum, who also did the music for Broadway's Cry-Baby) is available on iTunes, and it goes without saying that nothing says "stocking stuffer" like the lyrics "The only residue I want you rubbing off your face is my nutmeg". Wow.

As Stephen Colbert's conservative alter-ego puts it, the new preferred culture war for straight white men is "gays versus blacks, blacks versus gays, and black gays versus themselves." Spokesgay Dan Savage then appears to correct Stephen, noting that it's really the elderly vote that put Prop 8 through: "And they're dying, which is some comfort."

Check it out after the break!

My love for Stephen Colbert is well-documented. My love for R.E.M., not so much ... probably because I'm not really a big fan. But try and tell me that this clip from Wednesday's Colbert Report, which features Colbert's insano-pundit alter-ego interviewing the rockers from atop an enormous stool and using their new record to cover his junk, isn't one of the best band interviews ever. And don't miss out frontman Michael Stipe's winking responses to the questions about writing songs about girls...

Last night Stephen Colbert continued his shameless attempts at winning my heart (Enough, Stephen! You had me at "Warrior Poet!") by running the hilarious first segment of a two-part interview with the Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese.

In the span of mere minutes, Colbert's insanopundit persona shoots about a dozen holes in the conservative arguments against equal marriage rights for gay people, and manages to come up with a new word for gay marriage ("Man-riage!") and use "Appletini" to boot. Atta boy!

The "exciting conclusion" airs tonite ... so if you're not too hazy from doing imaginary body-shots off of a cardboard cutout of Perry from Make Me a Supermodel during our liveblog, do check it out.

My love for Stephen Colbert (both the actor and his insanopundit alter-ego) is almost as well-documented as his support of gay visibility by this point. But in a typical one-up, last night Colbert pulled a hilarious move in an interview with South Carolina's fourth district Representative Bob Inglis, asking the Republican rep could support gay marriage.

When Inglis notes that it's the heterosexuals who are threatening marriage and not the gays, Colbert counters that the gays have already ruined moustaches and short-shorts for "the rest of us" and gives some photographic evidence to support his claim.

Check it out after the jump. You'll like.

• How could I not get excited about a show with"Super Big Fun" in the title:
  I'm a huge fan of G4's Ninja Warrior, an obstacle course show which has a campy silliness, announcers with a flair for melodrama, outrageous costumes and plenty of shirtless guys. (Extra points to G4 for avoiding the subtle racism that comes up sometimes when these odd Japanese shows get adapted for American networks... yes, MXC, I'm looking at you.) So I'm pretty thrilled to hear that the network is giving us more Ninja Warrior-like shows with an upcoming programming block called "Duty Free TV", which will feature unusual shows from around the globe (though the first two new shows are Japanese).
  

• Are you up to the challenge of Mount Midori?
  And speaking of Ninja Warrior, G4 is holding its second American Ninja Challenge, seeking viewers who deserve to go to Japan and represent the United States in the next Ninja Warrior competition. I'd love to see a gay man win the challenge, so if you know someone strong enough to defeat the Warped Wall or the Salmon Ladder, why not get them to send a video? It'd be great to have someone to cheer from here. (Also, I really want to know if Toshihiro Takeda is just as cute in real life as he is on the TV.)
  
  

  

  Okay not the best picture, but a total cutie even in a bad picture.
  
  The first American Ninja winner, Colin B. is pretty easy on the eyes, too:

  

• The same old song:
  Sigh. As usual, we've got people complaining in the media about sex and violence in video games who seem to be repeating what other people are saying instead of judging the game independently. First off, the release of Bully on other platforms in the UK is bringing up all the same complaints we heard before Bully ever hit store shelves. That seems pretty silly now since most of those concerns didn't show up in the actual game. I guess we should be glad no one's complaining about the boy-kissing that also goes on in Bully.
  
  Meanwhile, the lesbian-inclusive Mass Effect has become a target for conservative pundits. It started when one conservative news site claimed claimed the game had "explicitly graphic" love scenes, with another columnist saying the game "can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however the game player wishes". Bastion of journalistic credibility, Fox News picked up the story, prompting (Mass Effect publisher) EA Games to demand a correction. Unsurprisingly, Fox News' first response was a disingenuos one. It'll be interesting to see how that develops...
  

Oh Stephen Colbert, how do I love thee? And how much did I miss you in the ten weeks that you weren't there to tuck me in at night? I know that last week we ran a poll about whether you prefer The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, and while I am still a fan of Jon Stewart's three-ring circus, I'm shocked that more people aren't as head-over-heels for Colbert's unabashedly (and unintentionally) gay-friendly Insano-Pundit as I am.

To demonstrate why I love Stephen so much, I'm posting two clips from last night's episode. How could you not love Colbert screaming "F*CK YOU OLD MAN" at hatemonger Bill O'Reilly (whom we lovingly profiled a few weeks back) through a mouthful of lo mein? Watch and learn:

Or how about a discussion of the political race in which Mike Huckabee's head is Photoshopped onto gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's legendary self-portrait (whip and all)?

It's not just his irrational fear of bears, or his love of monkeys on the lam, or even his impeccably-tailored suits and JC Penney Catalog hair. In fact, I haven't figured out exactly what it is about Stephen that I love so much, so I'm dating this post's headline with the expectation that I'll return to the topic ... because writers or no, he's bound to give me good reason to.

Here's an intriguing headline: Monday night's ratings for The Daily Show were down 15 percent from its last original episode while The Colbert Report's ratings were up by 11 percent. Surprising enough as it is, but the story gets even more interesting when you look at the ratings for both shows before the strike: in October, 30% of The Daily Show viewers didn't stick around for The Colbert Report.

That's something I'm having a hard time understanding. I tend to think of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as one show interrupted by a bonus theme song. I even have the DVR programmed to record an extra half-hour of The Daily Show so that both shows are recorded together. (That way I don't have to worry about the trade-off between Jon and Stephen getting interrupted by the DVR interface.) Apparently, nearly a third of Daily Show viewers don't feel the same way.

Adding to my puzzlement, both my partner and I are bigger fans of Colbert with its more satirical character, not to mention Colbert's ability to deliver very sharp remarks to a guest while phrasing it like a compliment. The format allows the Report to have a stronger voice. And Stephen's fake pundit has been nabbing press with fun little stunts like the metaphor-off with Sean Penn, his anti-Hungarian comments and his presidential run. I'm surprised that so many people can tune in for The Daily Show and not stick around for Stephen's antics afterwards.

Then again, could our preference for Colbert be partly based in his gay humor and for his over the top and - dare I say it - campy persona? Maybe we enjoy the Report a little more because of a gay sensibility? (It's worth noting that Colbert's first guest after a 10-week absence was outspoken gay political writer Andrew Sullivan.)

That has me wondering about how AfterElton.com readers get their nightly dose of fake news. Do you watch both shows or do you tune in for just Jon or Stephen? Then again, maybe you like the unintended comedy of Bill O'Reilly. The hilarity of lines like "Was this a negligee situation?" can be hard to beat for some people...

(Thanks to the No Fact Zone for the pointer.)

Last Friday we posted on the writer's strike and its potential impact on some gay fave TV shows.

The walkout officially began on Monday. It's the first industrywide strike by writers since 1988. That strike lasted five months, and a lot of folks believe the current walkout could last as long or longer. The battle between the writers and the studios boils down to compensation for digital delivery of content. (Just before the strike, the union dropped its other demand for increased compensation for DVD sales - but got no counteroffer/concession from the studios on the digital issue.)

Both sides are digging in their heels and settling in for a long fight. We have some more specific information as to how that will affect some of your favorite shows:

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. These two gems are already in repeats. If the strike drags on into 2008, Comedy Central has hinted that The Daily Show show might come back in a predominantly interview driven format. (There's an important election coming up and the nation will need its fake news!).

Note: on Monday there was a story circulating that, even though his show has been shut down, Jon Stewart would personally be paying his writers their salaries for the next two weeks. Turns out that is not in fact the case. Stewart's reps have denied the rumor.

Update: It looks like Colbert's folks have indeed been taking this seriously and have been researching the protocol for weeks. This should make for the most exciting primaries South Carolina has ever seen ... not that the bar is likely set terribly high or anything ...

It's official: comedian Stephen Colbert is through the looking glass. Last night in a crossover stunt, Colbert told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show that he's entertaining the idea of running for President in 2008 but that if he were to announce it he'd do so on a "more prestigious show."

Minutes later, Colbert announced on The Colbert Report that he is officially running for President in his home state of South Carolina. I have no idea how this is going to work, but I hope that the show's lawyers get hazard pay.

He also has yet to pick a running mate ... may I suggest Jerri Blank? Or Brian Williams?

Bears, be warned. Gay bears, rejoice! Both can check out the clip after the jump...