funny?!! Colbert said "the truth has a well known liberal bias"! Fox News disciples hear that and sagely nod their heads in agreement while liberals snicker knowingly. A study published in the International Journal of Press/Politics (registration required)found:
...there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.
This diary is mostly just to point you to a few excellent articles on the subject (specifically Jason Linkins where I first read about it). My writing skills are minimal so I pulled a few quotes in hopes of getting people interested.
In 2006, Colbert roasted Bush at the WH Correspondence Dinner (I suppose the person who booked him thought he was a conservative)!
My favorite line out of so many?
I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.
Hilarious! But what did the average Joe conservative who saw the performance think? Did they think Colbert was actually praising Bush and his leadership? Jason Linkis writes:
I think a lot of conservatives are going to be pissed when they realize that Stephen Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner was not, in fact, an awkward and ineffective attempt to praise President George W. Bush, but actually a bitter and satiric criticism of his incompetence!
(Of course most of the people sitting in the audience did get it and did not laugh. Why? Joan Walsh at Salon.com nails it:
Colbert's deadly performance did more than reveal, with devastating clarity, how Bush's well-oiled myth machine works. It exposed the mainstream press' pathetic collusion with an administration that has treated it -- and the truth -- with contempt from the moment it took office. Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes. Colbert refused to play his dutiful, toothless part in the White House correspondents dinner -- an incestuous, backslapping ritual that should be retired. For that, he had to be marginalized. Voilà: "He wasn't funny.
But that is a another story.)
Andrew Schmookler at OpEdNews also writes about the study going in to more detail on "confirmation bias".
Confirmation bias is likely to be especially pronounced in satire because one of the things about satire — especially the deadpan, bald-eagle satire of Colbert — is that it is chock-full of ambiguity and uncertainty. This leaves lots of opportunities for a viewer to fill in the blanks — a kind of choose-your-own-truthiness, if you will.
For example, in his piece he notes that All in the Family's racist and stereotypical Archie Bunker was supposed to be Lear's way of poking holes in racist attitudes but in realty, racists found him to be a sympathetic figure!
Wikipedia notes that satirical speech
often professes to approve (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist actually wishes to attack.
Of course, conservatives don't have a corner on missing the humor of political satire. Check out some of the comments on Jon Swifts blog.
What are some of your favorite Colbert moments?
Update! It has been pointed out to me by hormiguero in the comments that I am way behind the times since Kos already reported on it yesterday!