The Decemberists

The Decemberists are a hyper-literate progressive indie rock band, sort of like the Jethro Tull of the twenty-first century.

On the November 29, 2006 edition of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert announced that they, like Jeopardy!, are riding on Stephen's coat tails by ripping off Stephen's Green Screen Challenge. Which prompted Stephen to ask why they can't just be like every other indie rock band and rip off the Pixies.

The Second Challenge
The Decemberists' blatant thieving prompted Stephen to declare a second Green Screen Challenge.

The Counter Challenge
The Decemberists have countered by accusing Colbert of stealing from an on stage lightsaber fight that the Decemberists had on stage during a show in San Francisco several months prior to the original Green Screen Challenge. ""We already played out the light saber thing months earlier, live and on stage-- sans animation, stunt double and fancy green screen-- with pure rock, sweat and C batteries" The coat tail riding Decemberists have also countered that the band shot the video in mid July, a month before Colbert's challenge was issued. However, more than likely they shot the video intending to add special effects themselves but instead, upon seeing Stephen's genius idea for the Green Screen Challenge, they decided to hitch a ride on his coattails.

The Decemberists continued in their attacks by issuing two counter challenges to Colbert. The first was to encourage their fans to edit them defeating Stephen Colbert in their video. They also challenged Stephen to a guitar solo competition, which is just silly. Everyone knows gentlemen only duel with banjos or fiddles.

But The Decemberists' challenge managed only to manuever them right into Stephen's trap: They had forgetten that Stephen was the lead singer and guitarist for noted 80's new wave sensations Stephen and the Colberts.

The Counter Counter Challenge
On the December 7, 2006 edition of The Colbert Report, Stephen accepted The Decemberists' counter-counter-challenge. He invited them to appear on The Report on December 20th, 2006 to settle it, like men, granting them the home field advantage of December.

Riding Coattails?
There are some who believe that this ruse is just a sneaky way for The Decemberists to ride Dr. Colbert's coattails.