Age: 47
Occupation: Host, The Colbert Report
Is it even fair to continue calling Colbert a comedian? In recent years he's stretched the boundaries of his Emmy-winning fake punditry to their limits and beyond. In 2010, he and Jon Stewart held a tongue-mostly-in-cheek Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the Washington Mall, drawing tens of thousands. Now he's mulling a presidential bid, backed by (but not in cooperation with) his own super PAC. In the process, he's morphed from a mere satirist to a political performance artist.