• what Earlier this week, with little warning, “The Colbert Report” stopped taping shows without offering a full explanation, leading to much speculation online. It was the first time that ever happened in the seven-year history of the show.
• why It appears the issue is family-related in nature. Reports suggest Stephen Colbert’s 91-year-old mother, Lorna, recently had a life-threatening medical emergency. The show itself wouldn’t confirm this, though. source

• Let me say that the President could not have been nicer, especially to my mother. I have some lovely pictures of her with him.
• Stephen Colbert • Discussing his interactions with George W. Bush at the White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner, where he made a controversial 2006 appearance. Colbert was asked about the situation by a Redditor in a lengthy, out-of-character interview that he largely wrote in all-caps. Other interesting topics covered: A congressman tried to walk off the stage while he was shooting in DC (but they got him to stay), he always tells his interviewees that he’s in character (“I admire Sacha Baron Cohen, but I am not doing Ali G.”) and he claims that the dumber he sounds about a topic, the more he knows about it. Fun read. source

• All he has to do is apologize to us, and we’ll hire him back.
• Jon Stewart • Mocking Rick Sanchez’s comments on the Jewish media on Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars” charity event Saturday night. Stewart, who has gotten quite a bit of distance from the former CNN host lately, also made this quip to people thinking about donating: “If you went on radio and said the Jews control the media…you may want to hold on to your money.” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh boy. source

• The Gregory Brothers (and sister-in-law) have been turning autotuned news reports into gold for over a year now, and as “Bedroom Intruder” proves, they’re only getting better at their mad viral video skillz. More than the original clip itself, it turned Antoine Dodson into a star (and the attempted rape behind the video into the most-publicized attempted rape on record). So, it was only a matter of time until they turned their skills into a deal with a TV network – and a behind-the-scenes-focused pilot with Comedy Central is in the cards. Sometimes the internet is awesome. source

• Oh boy, this is getting testy. YouTube and Viacom’s long-running lawsuit is still going on, and if anything, it’s heating up. On one side is Viacom, claiming the site was designed around copyright infringement. On the other is YouTube/Google, claiming that Viacom’s conduct suggests the company if full of hypocrites. Who’s right? Take a gander for yourself:

Viacom’s corner: “You’re stealing our stuff!”

• YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube’s founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement.
• A statement from Viacom • Regarding what they feel is a culture of copyright infringement – a statement they released after documents from a lawsuit between the two firms became public today. Viacom first sued the Google-owned company in 2007 for $1 billion. They used old statements from the founders suggesting that they knew what they were doing – ripping off copyrighted content.

YouTube’s corner: “You guys are total hypocrites!”

• Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. … Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt ‘very strongly’ that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.
• YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine • Giving his take on the lawsuit and documents on the site’s blog. He argues that YouTube is following the “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and Viacom themselves would send employees to a Kinkos for the singular purpose of uploading content to the site, going as far as “roughing up” the video to make it seem like it’s from a second-hand source. Oh, and allowing copyrighted video to just stay on the site. source

• It’s perhaps the best ten seconds in TV history. Stephen Colbert could seriously say this for weeks on end, and it would make us feel much happier about the fact that Sarah Palin exists. That, friends, is a great clip.

• Reno 911! was cancelled at 1:30 pm today. Won’t be wearing the shorts again.
• “Reno 911” star Thomas Lennon • Announcing via tweet that his popular cop-show parody had been canceled. It lasted six seasons and spawned a funny movie with a great joke involving a dead whale. We’ll miss it, but are happy to see Lennon and Robert Ben Garant – talented alums of “The State” with writing credits on the hit “Night at the Museum” movies – get a chance to do something else. Garant admitted to his hometown paper that he would’ve kept doing the character forever if he hadn’t been forced to stop. Keep an eye out, though: They’re working on a new show. • source

• Word on the street is that Bender, Leela, Fry, Zoidberg and the rest of the crew will be headed back to Comedy Central for a 13-episode run. To celebrate, here’s some Hypnotoad. We’ll be back after the hypnosis wears off.source