Miyamoto Beats Rain, Colbert As TIME Most Influential

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 12:15pm 06/05/08 | 37 Comments

Fans of the brilliant Colbert Report will most-likely be aware of his long-running feud with Korean K-Pop artist and star of the upcoming Speed Racer film, Rain, in running for top spot for the annual TIME Magazine 100 Most Influential People poll.

Last year Colbert came second to Rain who had a commanding lead over him, which prompted the comedian to make a parody K-Pop song that utterly upset the Korean people (my cousin actually just came back from there after teaching English for a year, he said they were pissed!) called "He's Singing in Korean".

This year Colbert rallied as much as possible to derail Rain and become the world's most influential person, however, both he and Rain were beaten out by Mario creator and Nintendo genius, Shigeru Miyamoto.
From Time.com:

Despite aggressive campaigning on Larry King Live, Today and his own show, the voters have spoken � and the winner is not Stephen Colbert. The falsely outraged host will reportedly address this slight on his eponymous pretend cable news program later this evening.

If there's any consolation for Colbert, it's that his arch nemesis, peach-cheeked South Korean pop star Rain, didn't win either.

The world's most influential person in 2008, according to TIME.com voters, is Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto topped the poll with an influence rating of 72 from 1,829,710 overall votes. (Finalists are rated from 1 for least influential to 100 for most influential; users can vote as often as they like.) The 2007 winner Rain finished second with an influence rating of 68 from 1,491,910 votes, while Colbert came in a distant third with a 65 rating from 853,004.

So, there you have it, without so much as lifting a finger to sway votes, Miyamoto topped the two biggest stars in the known world (as far as an online TIME poll goes) proving videogames are best. Harmonix cats, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, came in at number 70 for creating the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises.

TIME Shigeru Miyamoto Stephen Colbert Rain

Latest Comments

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scuzzy
Posted 12:22pm 06/5/08

Haha fantastic, the Rain thing was great on the show.

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Idol
Posted 12:32pm 06/5/08

umm why would Colbert even be on that list, f*****g Santa Clause is more influential and legitimate than him.

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scuzzy
Posted 12:34pm 06/5/08

Because people voted, thats how it works.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 12:35pm 06/5/08

Idol, how dare you.

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ravn0s
Posted 12:36pm 06/5/08

who the f*** is colbert and rain?

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qmass
Posted 12:40pm 06/5/08

umm why would Colbert even be on that list, f*****g Santa Clause is more influential and legitimate than him.

I know its hard for people that are intellectually handicapped to understand... but there is actually truth beneath satire. With a big enough audience world wide, someone that attempts to dispel the bulls*** beneath America's media is actually a pretty influential thing. (Even though he most likely got there in the same manor he got to the top of the bridge naming comp in whatever euro country that whole thing was in)

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scuzzy
Posted 12:43pm 06/5/08

who the f*** is colbert and rain?

Colbert: see commedy channel (see also Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
Rain: See Korean pop music

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nels
Posted 12:50pm 06/5/08

slow news day?

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infi
Posted 02:20pm 06/5/08

yeah i don't geddit. colbert is just another standup comedian.

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Denny
Posted 02:30pm 06/5/08

deservedly so.

No one has had any where near as much impact in another field of media.

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infi
Posted 02:34pm 06/5/08

are you trying comedy out too?^

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DM
Posted 03:11pm 06/5/08

2007 must of been a really, REALLY slow year if a pop singer was on a most influential list. wtf

last edited by DM at 15:11:41 06/May/08

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fpot
Posted 03:17pm 06/5/08

yeah i don't geddit.

I think I am going to have a heart attack and die of not suprised.

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trog
Posted 03:55pm 06/5/08

yeah i don't geddit. colbert is just another standup comedian.

Uh, false

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Bah
Posted 03:58pm 06/5/08

No one has had any where near as much impact in ~~another field of media.~~digg and other social news sites that can spam internet voting

Fixed.

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infi
Posted 04:01pm 06/5/08

ok, i geddit now. these people are the trendiest candidates within the nerd fraternity i.e. those people mostly likely to vote online.

well why didn't Time just say that.

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ctd
Posted 04:25pm 06/5/08

Colbert and stewart are awesome. Wish I had the comedy channel so I could watch them on a more regular basis. Lucky letterman is on ten

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sif greazy
Posted 05:59pm 06/5/08

If Miyamoto hated America, then there would be no America.

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nF
Posted 06:06pm 06/5/08

So Shigeru Miyamoto is Man of the Year?

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Idol
Posted 07:02pm 06/5/08

Because people voted, thats how it works.

Is that true? That would explain why he even got on. Why don't they just call it 'popularity contest'?

Frankly I don't even think the average joe would have heard of Colbert, though. His audience are probably just very vocal and spammy.

And just how influential he can potentially be is questionable. Nobody really knows where he stands on anything, he tries to be as ambiguous as possible as to what he really believes. No matter how you've interpreted it, you don't know for sure. Plus, you are what you pretend to be, and that sentiment makes Colbert very uncomfortable.

I wouldn't be surprised if a portion of his loyal audience have completely misunderstood Colbert.

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icewyrm
Posted 07:28pm 06/5/08

Oh, I thought you were describing democracy, carry on idol.

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qmass
Posted 09:08pm 06/5/08

Nobody really knows where he stands on anything, he tries to be as ambiguous as possible as to what he really believes.

Its pretty obvious what his stance is. He takes the most illogical, extreme (in a characterization way, not like... extremist) right wing view on all things. When he says something is bad, it probably means its good. I'm sure that his 'real life' views on politics are quite closely guarded because anything from his real personality would only weaken the character.

Its probably hard for you to understand because you find yourself agreeing with what he says even though everyone else is laughing at it.

Frankly I don't even think the average joe would have heard of Colbert, though. His audience are probably just very vocal and spammy.

Trog posted the only link you need to see. They don't get total randoms off the street (or tv people with a tiny market share cable show) to speak at correspondent dinners. They get influential people from media. White house says hes big, hes big!

edit: Just in case you feel compelled to write this off as the ranting of a lunatic Colbert fan. I don't even watch his show, Ive seen a couple eps here and there and see most of the news items he makes it into.

last edited by qmass at 21:08:09 06/May/08

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 10:16pm 06/5/08

And just how influential he can potentially be is questionable.

Errr, when he jokingly decided to 'run' in south carolina, he was appearing with a high percentage of support within days, so much so, they ruled he had to withdraw (mostly because what he was doing was technically illegal) because he was actually splitting the voter divide already too far. We don't know so much here because we only see him on foxtel, but I've been to the states a bunch of times - that boy is VERY popular among the liberal/democratic youth... who are disenfranchised by the 'old money' (so to speak)

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taggs
Posted 10:18pm 06/5/08

And just how influential he can potentially be is questionable. Nobody really knows where he stands on anything, he tries to be as ambiguous as possible as to what he really believes. No matter how you've interpreted it, you don't know for sure. Plus, you are what you pretend to be, and that sentiment makes Colbert very uncomfortable.

ur doin it wrong.

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Nitro
Posted 10:39pm 06/5/08

I watch Colbert most nights. F*****g hilarious and very clever.

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fpot
Posted 06:40am 07/5/08

It's funny but I find American politics so depressing and banal that I can't watch his show :(

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d[o_0]b
Posted 01:29pm 07/5/08

democracy is Americas best export. Well until china can package it up and sell it for 3 cents a unit that is.

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B.Hardball
Posted 01:48pm 07/5/08

Yeh I don't think America invented democracy dude.

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Nitro
Posted 01:51pm 07/5/08

It kinda did. The ancient and middle age democracies weren't democracies in the sense of equal rights etc.

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B.Hardball
Posted 01:54pm 07/5/08

I think the ancient greeks or romans let everyone including women vote?

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infi
Posted 01:55pm 07/5/08

US invented the style of democracy that requires you to be filthy rich to get elected.

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taggs
Posted 02:04pm 07/5/08

considering african americans technically were entitled to vote but often couldn't in practice up until 1964 i don't think that's particularly correct.

last edited by taggs at 14:04:55 07/May/08

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scuzzy
Posted 10:44am 08/5/08

Holy s*** Rain DDR Dance off last night

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Idol
Posted 10:59am 08/5/08

Its pretty obvious what his stance is. He takes the most illogical, extreme (in a characterization way, not like... extremist) right wing view on all things. When he says something is bad, it probably means its good. I'm sure that his 'real life' views on politics are quite closely guarded because anything from his real personality would only weaken the character.

Its probably hard for you to understand because you find yourself agreeing with what he says even though everyone else is laughing at it.

So what your saying is that it's pretty obvious what his beliefs are, and yet they are so closely guarded that you don't in fact know them.

And somehow I agree with Colbert even though we both just said that nobody knows what Colbert is thinking.

You're a real clever cookie.

The fact is you see YOURSELF in Colbert, as that is how his character is written to be. There are catholics that think he's a funny catholic, and there are atheists who believe he is a sarcastic atheist. He's probably neither!

last edited by Idol at 10:59:56 08/May/08

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taggs
Posted 11:12am 08/5/08

So what your saying is that it's pretty obvious what his beliefs are, and yet they are so closely guarded that you don't in fact know them.

no what he's saying is that it's pretty obvious what his tv persona's beliefs are as he takes comical and extreme positions on current affairs in order to highlight the comical and extreme inherent in the situations themselves.

it is not obvious what his personal beliefs are as he keeps them fairly quiet, or tries to anyway, as if they were made public it would undermine his persona's ability to take such satirical positions.

i would have thought it would be easy to make the distinction between his tv persona and actual personality.

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infi
Posted 11:48am 08/5/08

yeah it's pretty obvious. he's just doing it for gags - it's what he's paid to do.

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qmass
Posted 02:13pm 08/5/08

yeah it's pretty obvious. he's just doing it for gags - it's what he's paid to do.

I actually think that he does it for more than just gags. I honestly believe a big part of the show is to try and get a younger generation interested in current affairs, especially politics. Its very American centric but good or bad, s*** going down in America affects us so you gotta keep up with it.

edit:

So what your saying is that it's pretty obvious what his beliefs are, and yet they are so closely guarded that you don't in fact know them.

How hard is it to see the distinction between a character and a real life persona? He is obviously, in real life, somewhere to the democratic left and he obviously satirizes the republican right. I clearly stated that his CHARACTERS views were obvious, although his REAL BELIEFS (as in the man not the character) are not made vocal. He doesn't make his beliefs on specific issues known because thats not what his job is. His job is to highlight ridiculous situations delivered from the viewpoint of a frothing at the mouth republican like Bill O'reilly.

last edited by qmass at 14:13:42 08/May/08

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