May 6, 2008 7:08 AM PDT

Colbert's Webby honor: 'Person of the Year'

Posted by Caroline McCarthy

He might not get to fulfill his presidential dreams, but comic pundit Stephen Colbert will still end 2008 with at least one, uh, honor: Person of the Year at the 12th Annual Webby Awards.

The "Oscars of the Internet," presented by a consortium of technology, media, and entertainment hotshots known as the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, announced their winners and honorees on Tuesday. This year's Webbys will be presented next month as part of Internet Week New York.

Colbert received the Person of the Year accolade for his reputation as a digital buccaneer of sorts: over the past year and a half, his Colbert Report show on Comedy Central has prompted Google bombing, Wikipedia vandalism, what might have been the fastest-growing Facebook group in history, and (on a completely different note) hundreds of thousands of dollars for DonorsChoose.org when he promoted it on air.

Stephen Colbert: comedian, pundit, Web renegade, Webby honoree.

(Credit: Comedy Central)

The Webby Film and Video Awards, an offshoot of the Webbys proper, selected filmmaker Michel Gondry as its Person of the Year: Gondry's latest flick, Be Kind Rewind, sparked a trend in "sweding" (low-budget "remakes" of movies) on the likes of YouTube, and Gondry has made an online-video splash himself, with seemingly impossible Rubik's Cube puzzle clips.

The Webbys' "Artist of the Year" award went to Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am for his "Yes We Can" song and video in support of presidential candidate Barack Obama.

For a full list of Webby winners, which include Flickr, Facebook, I Can Has Cheezburger, Yelp, Digg, Apple, The New York Times, TED Conferences, HuffingtonPost.com, Kiva, Mint, PostSecret, and CNET Networks' Chow, click here.