The interview segments on The Colbert Report are usually little more than an excuse for host Stephen Colbert to show off his virtuoso in-character improvisational skills, while the guests play along with varying degrees of success. 
 
 On Tuesday night’s Report, however, Colbert met his quick-witted match in Pussy Riot, the punk band whose members were imprisoned, then released, for insulting Russian President Vladmir Putin. Their feat was all the more impressive for the fact that they conducted the interview through a translator, which at first seemed like it might become drag on the interview. 
 
 Instead, the responses from Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina were so sharp, funny, and at times poignant, that the presence of the translator only served to hang the viewer on every word. They talked about their imprisonment and release, took shots at Putin, daring him to put them back in jail, and provided alternately hilarious and sobering commentary on the state of Russia’s anti-gay laws. Sometimes, it seems, humor isn’t lost in translation, it is revealed. 
 
 Here’s the video of Colbert’s interview with Pussy Riot, in two parts, from Comedy Central: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Part Two: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
– Two newly released members of Pussy Riot tell the New York Times that they're kicking around the idea of running for political office in Russia. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, currently visiting the US as part of an international tour, also made clear that they have no intentions of tamping down their outspoken ways. “This is certainly not the time for us to be afraid," says Tolokonnikova. "The situation in Russia has gotten so much worse. And if we couldn’t keep quiet about it then, then we certainly won’t keep quiet about it now." Alyokhina adds that the support they received from around the world made them feel free even while imprisoned. “In light of that, it’s kind of silly to talk about having to go through that a second time as something that would instill fear in us.” The interview is fairly routine stuff, but not-so-routine was their visit to the Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert "met his quick-witted match," observes Mediaite. Sample response when asked about Vladimir Putin: "We have different ideas about a bright future, and we don't want a shirtless man on a horse leading us" into that future. Watch it here.