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As The Colbert Report's fourth year of revolutionizing news and comedy begins Monday night, the hyper-real comedian can cross an item off his to-do list: National Museum of American History director Brent Glass offered last week to make Colbert's portrait a part of the museum's Treasures of American History collection (video embedded).
Goodbye bathroom, hello forever.
Thus far, Colbert had only managed to get his portrait hung outside the Smithsonian museum's restroom. But the infinitely regressive painting of the faux newsman will get an upgrade when the institution reopens Nov. 21. The portrait will take its rightful place in the Treasures of American History exhibit beside Abraham Lincoln's top hat, General Custer's buckskin coat and Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
Better late than never. Colbert has been coding the pop-cultural zeitgeist for three years straight. He's already run for president in the real world and the Marvel Universe, had his DNA shot into space, had a new spider species, a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor and a bridge in Hungary named after him -- and much, much more.
Now the museum will undoubtedly benefit from the so-called Colbert bump.
What's left to for the comedian to prove? He's been repeatedly snubbed for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, even though he has become the most relevant figure on network and cable television. So maybe this will be the year the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences comes to its senses. A cabinet seat in an Obama administration makes sense -- perhaps spearheading a newly formed Ministry of Culture. How about etching his mug into Mount Rushmore?
Post a comment below if you have ideas about how Colbert's undeniable greatness and truthiness could be better memorialized.
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