Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

national treasure

Earlier this month, The Colbert Report aired a multi-part mini-saga of Stephen Colbert’s efforts to have his portrait hung in one of the Smithsonian museums. The end result was that the National Portrait Gallery agreed to display his portrait for a six-week run, giving it a featured spot outside the Hall of Presidents, next to the restroom.

So, naturally, Rob and I had to go check it out.

When we visited the museum last weekend, there was a small line in front of the Colbert portrait, as people queued up to photograph or be photographed with the portrait. (By the time we left, later in the afternoon, that line had more than doubled in length.) A museum guard and and a museum staff member stood next to the doorway. I saw at least one person check with the security guard that this was not, in fact, the line for the actual restroom. I heard knowing chuckles and saw bemused grins from other folks in line who seemed to recognize the silliness of the situation ("Yes, I’ve come to a legitimate art museum to see a Photoshopped portrait of a television political satirist that’s hanging next to the restrooms. Not only that, but there’s a line of other people who are here for the same reason.")

This was actually my second trip to see a Colbert portrait. (Lest anybody think I’m suffering from some misguided Colbert obsession leading me to go out of my way to make ridiculous pilgrimages in his honor, I’ll add the caveat that, in both cases, the portraits were in places that were convenient to me already: With respect to the most recent portrait, I live in the DC area; as for the other, I was in South Carolina visiting relatives anyway.)