Until now, Stephen Colbert's amazing and ingenious use of the net and the growing participant culture to promote his show has been a beautiful thing to watch. But it was never beyond my imagination. If I were in his place I'd be doing the same thing. But I just watched the intro to the Colbert Report episode 08.21.2006 and his intro took it over the edge for me. By itself maybe it was just another funny/clever comment, but when added to the sum total of Wikipedia jokes, Green screen antics and his other 'buzz' generating stunts, you get a very beautiful picture.

His intro comment was "Could being a Neilson family kill you? Watch the entire show to find out".

Genius. Subtle, relevant, clever and could even have a direct affect on his rating for the night.

I love that guy so much - in a straight, non-sexual way of course.

He is climbing fast to join my other masters:

Joss Whedon
Ronald D. Moore
Jon Stewart
And all the people leading the charge with Current.TV (including Al Gore)

J.J. Abrams might be on the list soon, depending on what he does with Star Trek - but right now he is a little too disconnected for my taste.

I think Colbert, however, should be the new member of the 'Oh my god, you're changing traditional media by being a legend' club.

In Episode 08.23.2006 he even goes on to talk about the fragmentation of media experiences due to the explosion of choices going so far as to bring a band on that uses YouTube as its primary promotion vehicle. I think he understands the principal of 'Audiences of One' better than most traditional media personalities.