Colbert’s antics with his Super PAC might be the most important political nonsense happening right now. And I’m saying that as someone that watched at least a few of the GOP debates. There’s been a flood of articles. Here are some of the best.

There was this genius episode from December where he explained in an editorial how he very nearly bought the naming rights to the South Carolina primary.

If nothing else good comes from this, we have at least narrowed down the exact value of sanctity — somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000.

Then there’s this excellent profile in the New York Times:

In August, during the run-up to the Ames straw poll, some Iowans were baffled to turn on their TVs and see a commercial that featured shots of ruddy-cheeked farm families, an astronaut on the moon and an ear of hot buttered corn. It urged viewers to cast write-in votes for Rick Perry by spelling his name with an “a” — “for America.” A voice-over at the end announced that the commercial had been paid for by an organization called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, which is the name of Colbert’s super PAC, an entity that, like any other super PAC, is entitled to raise and spend unlimited amounts of soft money in support of candidates as long as it doesn’t “coordinate” with them, whatever that means. Of such super-PAC efforts, Colbert said, “This is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical.”

And now there’s a presidential run, a move that required Colbert to hand the reigns of his Super PAC to Jon Stewart. Their glee in poking fun at the insane situation is infectious. This NPR story covers what they’ve been up to.

In that Times profile, I think Jon Stewart really nails why he can get away with all of this:

“I’m not at all surprised that the show is good — he’s amazing at it. He’s able to weave a character in a way that’s never been done on television before — rendering this fictional character in 3-D, live, in such a way that he’s still able to retain his humanity.” The extra dimension, he explained, is the other Colbert, the real one. “The third dimension is him. That’s the thing we started to see here. He is so interesting, smart and decent. He’s a good person, and that allows his character to be criminally, negligently ignorant.”

Truth. If it wasn’t obvious that Colbert was a good-humored, joy-filled nerd at heart, he’d be – well, like Bill O’Reilly.

But mostly he just seems thrilled that he gets to do this. Witness this cute duet from last night’s show with James Taylor. At the end, Colbert nearly falls off his seat to reach over and thank Taylor. You can’t fake that.