Stephen Colbert’s funny comes from an invention: “Stephen Colbert.”

He reclaimed the rhythms of the body and the industrial machine.

“OH BABY, YOU… YOU GOT WHAT I NEED!”

He smacks you from the horrible places you don’t let your head go.

“Real painters do not paint things as they are.”

Seventies soul, eloquent monsters, Talmudic etiquette-parsing, Samuel L. Jackson.

From anime to pop, this composer doesn’t think about genre.

He wrote two of the Radium Age’s best sf novels.

“Russia number 1, Iran number 1, USA [spits]“

She married adventure, but made it her own.

“I left Memphis to spread the news / Memphis women don’t wear no shoes”

In comparison to the Beliebers, he is a cipher.

He is the best at “over­confident because I’m over­compensating.”

You will take the kangaroo seriously.

His smiles, tears, and wall-punching are the best.

Prescient in her arguments for a plant-based diet.

A poetess with a talent for assured incongruity.

One of the first real scientists to write science fiction. FWIW.

He was haunted by his memories of destroying a Benedictine monastery.

His Radium Age sf and fantasy influenced Lovecraft and Gygax.

The camera never smiled at her, and she’s not looking at you.

It’s pretty hard to call a harp player a sell-out.

“I became a humorist out of rage, not kindness.”

He wrote cranky Radium Age science fiction parables.