He’s just a big idiot

AS the fake senior correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” Stephen Colbert earned a following mocking pompous reporters and the people they interview. His easy assumptions and grave, sometimes lewd questions were delivered deadpan with cocked head and arched eyebrow. Interviewees were often visibly confused, hanging speechless on their own desire to appear important.

That was fun. But actually, the comedian said, “I much prefer being the idiot myself. It’s one of my favorite things to do.” Now, with less than two months before the Oct. 18 launch of his spinoff, “The Colbert Report,” he is happily putting much thought into being as stupid as he wants to be.

Colbert’s senior correspondent will be promoted to pundit and will host guests from the real world, such as Ralph Nader or perhaps J.D. Salinger, he said: “There’s no reason I can’t have Hollywood figures, political figures, people with axes to grind.” He wants to explore weekly themes, like seat belts (“Are they worth the loss of liberty of the upper torso?”) or patriot of the week (“Who had the largest foam finger saying ‘We’re Number One?’ ”). The show will still trade on the 24-hour news cycle and will follow “The Daily Show” at 11:30 p.m., with Stewart handing off each night to Colbert “like O’Reilly tosses to Greta,” he said.

As Colbert’s fake reporter drew comforting manliness from Stone Phillips and obsessive dedication from Geraldo Rivera, Colbert’s fake talk show host will rework aggressive Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly. “He’s definitely the king,” Colbert said. “I have trouble watching his show. It’s exhausting.” Surprisingly, the politically left Colbert said he doesn’t always disagree with the far-right O’Reilly. “He had a wonderful interview with Bono during the Republican National Convention in New York. It made me think twice about Bono.”

Colbert, a thin man with an asymmetrical head and a theatrically sonorous voice, plans to dress in tailored suits and colorful ties, keep his hair neat and his tan deep. His plan is to be “an attractive vessel through which the river of truth can flow.” He may even take a swipe at O’Reilly’s own controversial past, he hinted. “If a girl is willing to take that call, I’ll sexually harass someone,” he said. “I’m not above saying inappropriate things, if it will help the show.”

A member of “The Daily Show” since it launched in 1996, Colbert, 41, began his career in Chicago with the Second City improv troupe. He worked on the HBO sketch comedy series “Exit 57,” ABC’s “The Dana Carvey Show” and Comedy Central’s three-season series “Strangers With Candy.” Colbert was the voice of Ace for “Saturday Night Live’s” animated short features “Ace and Gary: The Ambiguously Gay Duo.” (Steve Carell of “The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” another “Daily Show” veteran, played Gary.) Recently Colbert appeared in the film “Bewitched,” starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman.

Friendly and freewheeling, Colbert spoke recently by phone, sitting, he said, in an empty New York office previously occupied by Stewart (whose “The Daily Show” has relocated to a new studio). He has already repainted the walls green and installed a sisal carpet and a map of Charleston Harbor, a reminder of his South Carolina childhood. He still has writers to hire, guests to book and a tag line to choose for “The Colbert Report.” Some candidates: “Right or Wrong, I’m Right, You’re Wrong,” “It’s What Lincoln Would Have Watched” or “It’s French, [slang name]” referring to the silent Ts in “Colbert” and, in this case, “Report.” “We’re saving up all the unpronounced Ts and donating them to an organization for people who can’t afford to pronounce certain consonants,” he said.

At a time when broadcast networks are struggling to find new comedic shows to replace long-running sitcoms such as “Friends” and “Frasier,” Comedy Central seems to be on a roll -- at least in late-night comedy. Besides “The Colbert Report,” the network is experimenting with “Too Late With Adam Carolla” and “Weekends at the D.L.,” a talk show with stand-up comic D.L. Hughley that premiered last month.

Like “The Daily Show,” which has been credited with being the sole news source for a significant number of viewers, Colbert said his fake new show may actually offer real insights.

On “The Daily Show,” for instance, “if Cheney says, ‘I never said something,’ we’ll roll him saying it,” he said. “I don’t know why the real news doesn’t do it. It seems like news to us.

“People can perceive what ‘The Daily Show’ does as insightful on their own. And sometimes they see insight in things we do not do intentionally. Sometimes we put in insights no one notices. It’s the same with this.”

The only difference, he said, is that “our show will actually change the world.”