Jan[e] Schakowsky Takes on Colbert

By Olivia Leigh in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 5, 2007 5:20PM

Last night, North Side/North Shore Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss her participation in the House Hunger Caucus' Food Stamp Challenge. After accidentally introducing her as Jane (and insisting on calling her such for the rest of the evening, not wanting to admit an error), Colbert dished out his usual satire, suggesting that the food stamp allotment be decreased to $2 to combat obesity. Although she had some difficulty getting words in between Colbert's zingers, Schakowsky held her own and managed to briefly discuss her hope to increase the amount of money provided to food stamp users before declining a bite of pork rinds dipped in marshmallow fluff offered by the host.

Following the commercial, Schakowsky's 9th district was featured in the "Better Know a District" series. Colbert claimed he's been trying to feature the 9th for a long while, but scheduling problems or the influence of neighbor Rahm Emmanuel (whom Colbert insists is afraid of him) prevented him from doing so. The rest of the spot featured a series of cracks about our fine city and 'burbs to the north, including a well-received LSD/Lake Shore Drive joke (we had no idea this joke was still funny) and a chuckle-inducing comparison between the athletic challenges facing the Northwestern University Wildcats and the Cubs.

Although we wish the "Better Know a District" segment had included one of the signature sit-down interviews characterizing the rest of the series, we were still proud that Schakowsky managed to not look completely mystified during the first segment, which is more than we can say for some of our other politicians on other Comedy Central shows.