She Likes to Watch

Looks like I have a fan in television pundit Stephen Colbert.

Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s wildly popular “The Colbert Report,” mentioned my name last week in reference to Canton, South Dakota.

Colbert apologized for calling Canton “America’s real assburg” and “North Dakota’s dirty ashtray.”

He also read from an article by The Argus Leader of Sioux City, S.D. The newspaper quoted a local photo-journalist named — you guessed it — Sarah Linn as saying, “Canton is not a place where I’ll run into tons of opportunity to improve my career.”

I’m not sure if we share the same spelling, but that’s still pretty cool.

Of course, Canton, S.D. is not the first place to face Colbert’s wrath. He’s also dissed Canton, Georgia; Canton, Kansas; and Canton, Texas.

When will this reign of terror end?

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Can’t get enough of Canton?

A South Dakota graphic artist has created Canton-versus-Colbert, a Web site that catalogs anti-Canton sentiment. There’s even a game that lets visitors fling pheasants at the South Dakota state capitol to make Colbert apologize.

(I don’t get it either. Must be a South Dakota thing.)

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IN OTHER SHOWBIZ NEWS:

Promotional campaigns are getting so elaborate these days.

First there were fan-created frenzies over “Snakes on a Plane” and “Cloverfield.” Then Batman and The Joker stared their own propaganda campaigns to drum up press for “The Dark Knight.”

DreamWorks Pictures joins the fray with a wacky promotional site for the war spoof “Tropic Thunder.”

Faux filmmaker Jan Jürgen exposes the ego, ineptitude and madness behind “Tropic Thunder” in his documentary “Rain of Madness.”

There are undertones of horror and humor, as in Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper’s behind-the-scenes documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.” There’s also a lot of wonderful weirdness.

I recommend Jürgen’s “Dispatches from the Edge of Madness,” in which he interviews the cast and crew of this silly movie-within-a-movie.

PLUS, did you know that the Death Star has recently been spotted over San Francisco?!?

According to Gizmodo.com, the Galactic Empire has begun its invasion of the Bay Area. The proof is this video.

Nearly three minutes of footage depict TIE fighters soaring over the city, an Imperial Star Destroyer hovering near the Golden Gate Bridge and ATSTs (the so-called “chicken walkers”) exploring the beach.

I think I speak for the rest of California when I say: “We surrender!”
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Stephen Colbert photo courtesy of “The Colbert Report.”