All week The Colbert Report has been broadcasting from Iraq, entertaining the troops under the auspices of the USO. It has been a wonderful week of entertainment - really, really funny and sometimes moving, too. The humor has been less political and less biting, which I think is appropriate, and often much more silly/goofy than he usually does. He really does manage to demonstrate his range as a comic performer.

There have been interviews with military folks there and with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, and they've been both funny and informative. There are taped sequences with very good goofy physical comedy interspersed, including Stephen going through "basic training" before the trip, Tom Hanks and Stephen packing a USO box, and Stephen trying out for the Thunderbirds (which he keeps mistakenly calling "Thundercats"). Also interspersed are brief taped "shout outs" that all consist of "Thank you for your service" plus one joke (almost all of them good ones) from: the current POTUS and VP, 3 former POTUSes, John McCain, and Jim Webb. The audience of military personnel certainly seems to be having a totally wonderful time.

The whole week of shows is worth seeing and freely available on Comedy Central's website. And it's just four 22-minute shows, so not a big time commitment.