Papal tunnel syndrome

Stephen Colbert did a whole segment last night on the pope's wrist injury. Fans of the show may remember that after he broke his own wrist in 2007, Colbert launched his WristStrong program in which he tries to get celebrities to wear red silicone bracelets. Now he wants to get one on the broken wrist of Pope Benedict XVI--by having Colbert viewers pass one along to someone "holier than thou" until it reaches the pontiff.

"It's hard to see something bad happen to two things I love ... I love popes and wrists!" the Catholic Colbert said. "Frankly I thought the pontiff would be aware of my campaign for wrist awareness. After all we have only one degree of separation through our mutual friend Jesus. He's heaven's Kevin Bacon. He's Heaven Bacon."

You can watch the entire episode here (the papal segment is the second one beginning at 10:59) You'll love the "Every wrist is precious" in Gregorian chant.

Colbert's Wrist Strong bracelets gently mock the Hollywood fad of wearing colored silicone bracelets for various good causes., particularly Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong bracelets for cancer research, which started the trend. You can buy a WristStrong bracelet here for $7.50--$5 of which is donated to the Yellow Ribbon Fund, which supports families wounded U.S. veterans. So far, more than $170,000 has been raised.


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