Posted on 05/05/2009 12:14:40 PM PDT by steve-b
They say that many people now get much of their news from satire. Which might make you wonder where they get their satire from.
However, researchers at the Ohio State University wanted to get into the bowels of the political satire phenomenon and were perhaps a little surprised at how it is all being digested.
They subjected 332 people of varying political bents to a three-minute clip of "The Colbert Report." They then produced their own report, fetchingly entitled "Political Ideology and The Motivation to See What You Want to See in the Colbert Report."
The guinea pigs were flawless and flu-less in their concentration. They seemed to have all laughed. Yes, Stephen Colbert is funny, they all seemed to agree. Except for the fact that many conservatives appear to think that he is only pretending to be funny.
Which cries out for the question: "So is that still funny?" Shortly followed by the question: "You think he's just Bill O'Reilly, but thinner?"
A "yes" to both questions appears to offer a fair and balanced view of the situation.
Lead researcher Heather LaMarre was quoted by Miller-McCune.com as saying: "Liberals will see him as an over-the-top satire of a Bill O'Reilly-type pundit and think that he is making fun of a conservative pundit."
She continued: "But conservatives will say, yes, he is an over-the-top satire of Bill O'Reilly, but by being funny he gets to make really good points and make fun of liberals. So they think the joke is on liberals."
I know many large heads will say we are all so timber-skulled that we choose to see what we want to see in any living--or even dead--thing. You know, Ronald Reagan, Che Guevara, Chia Pets, John Denver, Lady Ga-Ga, PCs, hairy backs.
We choose to believe someone loves us when, to others, it is clear they haven't even noticed us. We choose to believe we are cool, clever, tall, short, fat--hey, even funny--regardless of any objective facts that stare us in the face and shout: "Oy! Fact here!".
LaMarre and her fellow examiners are positing that rather than stopping people on their subjective road more traveled and making them reassess their mental direction, Colbert may actually be reinforcing their prejudices.
Which, some might think, isn't very funny at all.
That's what reeducation camps are for. You will learn about The Truth like global warming or get shot.
He’s not funny.
Funny? I guess it depends on the face he makes.
Yeah, he's joking his ass right on down to the bank ain't he?
Three minutes of selectively edited clips for someone who has never seen his show is hardly scientific. I would bet most of the liberals they "tested" had already seen his show.
Is Colbert in the Ponzi Scheme business. I did not know that. I thought he was a comedic news reader.
The left really believe that O’Reilly is a conservative...and this is why they get such a kick out of Colbert. If you don’t think O’Reilly is a conservative, his schtick makes no sense...and certainly isn’t funny....just annoying.
Amen. I didn't think he was funny BEFORE I knew he who he was. If he's pretending to be funny, he sucks at pretending.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.