Conservatives unable to see through their own bias

[101A]

Honest, intelligent, respectful. Are you *sure* you're a conservative?

(insert "not sure if serious" post)

One of our sarcasm meters is broken.

[EVAY]

Yoni has one thing right and the most important thing wrong.

Colbert's humor is indeed based on the exaggeration (to the point of silliness) of an underlying truth.

Said 'kernel of truth' is not, however, the political viewpoint of the punditry he skewers on a nightly basis.

The underlying truth that Colbert exaggerates is the bloviating, emotive, jingoistic punditry of the far-right wing pundits and politicos in American politics.

It is not that he is finding truth in what they say and so exaggerating it. The truth that he is exaggerating is the WAYthat the far-right wing presents their arguments.

In other words, Colbert sees the far-right wing as jingoistic, bloviating, emotive crackpots, and takes that persona to a caricatured level.

That is all he does.

[EVAY]

I always thought that I wasn't crazy about Colbert's humor because I prefer a more understated humor to what he offers.

Never in my life did I imagine that his humor would be considered too nuanced for some people to understand.

Learn something new every day.

[Wild Cobra]

The Irony of Satire

This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology.

Additionally, 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. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

-------------------------------------------

http://hij.sagepub.com/content/14/2/212.abstract

Basically, conservatives just couldn't see through the jokes to get the satire.

If you say so.

[ChumpDumper]

If you say so.

yoni says so.

[Cry Havoc]

So... this just happened to go down on the Colbert Report last night:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnfh05JFQ4

Yeah, he's definitely a conservative.

[Marcus Bryant]

Yoni has one thing right and the most important thing wrong.

Colbert's humor is indeed based on the exaggeration (to the point of silliness) of an underlying truth.

Said 'kernel of truth' is not, however, the political viewpoint of the punditry he skewers on a nightly basis.

The underlying truth that Colbert exaggerates is the bloviating, emotive, jingoistic punditry of the far-right wing pundits and politicos in American politics.

It is not that he is finding truth in what they say and so exaggerating it. The truth that he is exaggerating is the WAYthat the far-right wing presents their arguments.

In other words, Colbert sees the far-right wing as jingoistic, bloviating, emotive crackpots, and takes that persona to a caricatured level.

That is all he does.

I don't particularly enjoy political humor as it is often unfunny. Occasionally a politician manages to say something so stupid that it's hard to screw up the punch line. The ultimate problem is that the humor is so ideologically stilted that it loses its appeal. The other is that it focuses on what some particular media type said and often reeks of inside baseball for those of us who don't give a what one moron said about one idiot.

Or, political humor is most amusing when it comes straight from the politician's mouth.

[EVAY]

I don't particularly enjoy political humor as it is often unfunny. Occasionally a politician manages to say something so stupid that it's hard to screw up the punch line. The ultimate problem is that the humor is so ideologically stilted that it loses its appeal. The other is that it focuses on what some particular media type said and often reeks of inside baseball for those of us who don't give a what one moron said about one idiot.

Or, political humor is most amusing when it comes straight from the politician's mouth.

A la Tina Fey's quotes directly from a Palin interview?

[Marcus Bryant]

If so. Satire has a place and frankly we should be laughing at politicians early and often, before we string them up.

I just find most political humor to be boorish, as it requires that you accept the comedian's particular express or implied ideology, or even better, their conspiracies.

[Cry Havoc]

If so. Satire has a place and frankly we should be laughing at politicians early and often, before we string them up.

I just find most political humor to be boorish, as it requires that you accept the comedian's particular express or implied ideology, or even better, their conspiracies.

I find this completely untrue. You can laugh at Stewart or Colbert even if you're a conservative, it all depends on whether you regard their comedy as biting seriousness or witty riposte.

I could laugh at someone who didn't support my views but voiced theirs if the humor was eloquent or intelligently designed.

[EVAY]

I like some political satire. I like it from folks who pop the pomposity balloons of either side. I think Stewart does that sometimes. Sometimes he goes overboard.

I don't like mean-spirited humor at anyone's expense, and I don't like sop ric humor directed at anyone.

Generally, Colbert falls into the "Simpson's" or "Confederacy of Dunces" sort of humor, and I just find that tedious.

A great deal of what I see from both sides these days is mean-spirited, with as much subtlety as a battering ram. Right up there with "Animal House".

[Marcus Bryant]

I find this completely untrue. You can laugh at Stewart or Colbert even if you're a conservative, it all depends on whether you regard their comedy as biting seriousness or witty riposte.

I could laugh at someone who didn't support my views but voiced theirs if the humor was eloquent or intelligently designed.

That's only when the frame of reference is common sense rather than ideology. Most commentators tend to eschew common sense and their humor sucks.

[EVAY]

I find this completely untrue. You can laugh at Stewart or Colbert even if you're a conservative, it all depends on whether you regard their comedy as biting seriousness or witty riposte.

I could laugh at someone who didn't support my views but voiced theirs if the humor was eloquent or intelligently designed.

One of my favorite things that I ever heard Stewart say was at that rally that he and Colbert had on the Mall and Stewart said (paraphrasing) "We are living in Hard Times. We are not living in End Times".

I really liked that.

[Marcus Bryant]

I like some political satire. I like it from folks who pop the pomposity balloons of either side. I think Stewart does that sometimes. Sometimes he goes overboard.

Stewart can be funny, primarily because his general standard from the times I've viewed his show is common sense rather than whatever particular ideology to which he subscribes.

[EVAY]

Stewart can be funny, primarily because his general standard from the times I've viewed his show is common sense rather than whatever particular ideology to which he subscribes.

One of my favorite guests on Stewart is Brian Williams, who clearly enjoys engaging Stewart in a back-and-forth wit challenge.

[Marcus Bryant]

The other thing that's killed humor in popular media, besides ideology, is the unwillingness to offend or rush to be offended, but perhaps that's best left to The Club.

[greyforest]

I haven't seen Colbert that much but, when I have, I think he's generally a funny guy. However, isn't the purpose of satire to caricature, ridicule, or humorously exaggerate something you believe is an embarrassing truth?

I think for Colbert to be an effective satirist, he must believe the subject of his humor is based on at least a kernel of truth. No?

Here's what Colbert has to say about it:

At home, Colbert is a doting father who makes sure his kids do not see the other Colbert — he only rarely let his kids watch the show.

"It's just like a pure silly thing. But you know, I truck in insincerity. With a very straight face, I say things I don't believe," Colbert tells Safer.

"Kids can't understand irony or sarcasm, and I don't want them to perceive me as insincere," Colbert says, "Because one night, I'll be putting them to bed and I'll say ... 'I love you, honey.' And they'll say, 'I get it. Very dry, Dad. That's good stuff,'" jokes Colbert.

Meantime, insincerity is paying big dividends and playing to more than a million people a night.

"Is there any possibility of the danger of you starting to believe yourself?" Safer asked.

"I hope so," Colbert replied. "I think that's the only hope that I'll actually do this job right — if I begin to believe my own line of crap."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...06_page4.shtml


BTW Colbert has a respectable amount of balls:

[Nbadan]

Let's recap

[Oh, Gee!!]

He's making fun of you. He thinks you're a clown.

winner

[RandomGuy]

Satirizing the concept of dishonesty is one thing. Satirizing the dishonesty of a person necessarily requires the consumer of the satire to assume there is a basis for the person to be ridiculed or shamed with respect to that dishonesty.

Are we really going to argue semantics simply because I disagree with the premise of your post?

Still lurking...

What you up to these days? One has to wonder.

[boutons_deux]

Still lurking...

What you up to these days? One has to wonder.

Didn't Pussy Eater die, or was that some other RWNJ

[RandomGuy]

Didn't Pussy Eater die, or was that some other RWNJ

oops. Looked at Yoni's last log in as 2-5-20, and thought that was a few days ago... wrong year...

[RandomGuy]

I haven't seen Colbert that much but, when I have, I think he's generally a funny guy. However, isn't the purpose of satire to caricature, ridicule, or humorously exaggerate something you believe is an embarrassing truth?

I think for Colbert to be an effective satirist, he must believe the subject of his humor is based on at least a kernel of truth. No?

This didn't age well.