Structure
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." All 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 he put down as saying Bush was a 'great' president)
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.
Read more about this topic: Better Know A District
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)
“Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one other—only in certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.”
—Talcott Parsons (1902–1979)
“The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. With Shakespeare it is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)