Stephen Colbert paid tribute last night to legendary author J.D. Salinger, who passed away last week. He had scholar and critic Henry Allen on the show to talk about Salinger's legacy, but Colbert wasn't so convinced of the author's greatness. "I am calling bullsh*t on this Salinger guy," he said, not least because the author never appeared on Colbert's show. Stephen's skepticism started with his feelings about "The Catcher in the Rye":
I was supposed to read that book in high school, but it was a crummy, lousy, god damn book. And an obvious rip off of the classic "Catcher in the Rye" Cliff's Notes.
His main bone to pick, though, was with the fact that Salinger's fame was based on talent alone, instead of everything else that usually goes into the making of a celebrity:
Salinger was still famous, without one red carpet appearance, not one interruption of someone's award show acceptance speech. He didn't have eight kids, let alone put one of them in a hot air balloon.
Henry Allen stood up for Salinger, however, contending that the books are great enough to account for the author's fame, though he admitted that Salinger did perhaps blow it by never appearing on "The Colbert Report."
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