Colbert Gets Buzz Cut in Baghdad

When Stephen Colbert announced he was doing four shows in front of the troops in Baghdad, many wondered if he’d tone down his ironic bluster. Wonder no more. Colbert swaggered on stage for the taping in a camouflage business suit yesterday, and declared himself the only one man enough to declare victory in Iraq, the New York Times reports. Then the president ordered Ray Odierno to shave Colbert’s head.

Colbert says he doesn’t want to patronize the troops by dumbing down his show, and he’s using his buffoonish persona to make a point. “My character thinks the war is over because he doesn’t hear about it anymore,” he says. In addition to his show, he guest-edited this week's Iraq-themed issue of Newsweek. "We stopped seeing much coverage of the Iraq War back in September," he writes in his editor's letter, "and I just figured the insurgents were wiped out because they were heavily invested in Lehman Brothers." (More Stephen Colbert stories.)