Stephen Colbert, 'arch conservative' The comic actor-writer's character is a man of the right,

[sce56]

Great article in the Sunday Times on Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert, 'arch conservative'
The comic actor-writer's character is a man of the right, and the comic-actor loves playing him.

LA Times Calendar Story
By Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
June 1, 2009

To use a word coined by Stephen Colbert, the writer and actor, there's a certain "truthiness" about Stephen Colbert, the character and host of Comedy Central's " The Colbert Report." Indeed, Colbert the character, a right-wing blowhard on a one-man mission to reeducate the ignorant, is convincing enough that a recent Ohio State University study found that a majority of conservatives polled believed Colbert the man was one of them. The irony couldn't please him more. "I'm thrilled by it!" he says, sitting in his New York office, a pack rat's homage to the show crammed with pictures and props and a "Lord of the Rings" pinball machine. "From the very beginning, I wanted to jump back and forth over the line of meaning what I say, and the truth of the matter is I'm not on anyone's side, I'm on my side," he says. "The important thing is that the audience laughs." The audience has been obliging him for the last 3 1/2 years, when Jon Stewart crowned the "Daily Show" correspondent with his own realm. While Colbert, a South Carolina native who trained in improvisation at Chicago's famed Second City, earned three Emmys as a "Daily Show" writer, he has since proved himself a competitor. Last year, his show won a writing Emmy, and for the last three years, it has been pitted against "The Daily Show" for variety, music or comedy series. "Jon said, 'Don't think you need to thank me if you win because you don't need to perceive me as the reason you're doing this,' but it's the truth," says Colbert, who speaks with Stewart weekly. "He's very generous."

Colbert works hard not to disappoint. He and his staff of 90 put in a minimum of 12-hour days. "It's a new show, and I'm a control freak," admits Colbert, who keeps a piece of paper taped to his desk that reads "work." But, he continues, "What we're doing is difficult. We deconstruct the news into a joke, and then we falsely reconstruct the news into how my character would see it. The writers and I talk about how it's like driving an 18-wheeler backward down a highway. It's possible, but you have to constantly readjust the steering." While the comedian's personal life is staid -- he and his wife and three children live in suburban New Jersey, where he teaches Sunday school and roots for Little League -- Colbert has taken his share of professional hits. He wrote for the short-lived " Dana Carvey Show"; "Strangers With Candy," a series he created and starred in along with Amy Sedaris in 1999 for Comedy Central, earned a cult following but lasted just 30 episodes. Perhaps his most public gaffe was his 2006 performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where a stunned audience listened to him reel off lines about then- President Bush such as, "Events can change; this man's beliefs never will." Says Allison Silverman, executive producer of "The Colbert Report," "I was really impressed with him continuing when it was not the audience we expected. My feeling there was pure respect for him having the cojones to continue."

Got to love that Colbert Report

[BlooInBloo]

1. One of the great testaments to American stupidity is the number of people...

who are convinced that he's speaking propia persona.

[sce56]

3. You can d/l the report from the The Ohio State University

Download the study here
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.

<SNIP>

In addition to Young’s work on late-night comedy and political messages, a key
media that focused on multiple perceptions of television characters was Vidmar and
Rokeach’s (1974) study of the hit 1970s primetime series All in the Family. This
study examined whether audiences would interpret the lead character, a parodied
bigot named Archie Bunker, as a negative role-model. The study found that individ-
uals who identified with the character’s conservative nature and agreed with his
political views held favorable perceptions of the character and believed Archie
Bunker articulated legitimate viewpoints. However, individuals with low character
identification and opposing political views held unfavorable perceptions. Of par-
ticular interest in this study is that individuals who identified with Bunker’s socio-
political views were not influenced by the director’s negative framing of the character,
while those who did not identify with Bunker’s political viewpoint reported attitudes
and perceptions consistent with the negative framing of this television character.
Clearly, individual-level political beliefs have the potential to bias the way audiences
perceive information and mitigate attempts to frame characters and information in
particular ways. While this study provided an early look at satire and parody’s role
in processing ambiguous political messages in entertainment television, Vidmar and
Rokeach’s (1974) study did not differentiate between individual-level perceptions
that can occur in many types of media information processing (e.g., McLeod et al.
2002; Shrum 2002) and the specific type of biased processing that occurs when
information is both ambiguous and lacking context (e.g., Balcetis and Dunning
2006; Long and Toppino 2004). This study focuses on the latter and extends our
knowledge of how certain forms of satire such as deadpan create the conditions
under which biased processing and self-favoring perceptions are likely to result.

[Mojambo]

2. This writer is a moron for calling his Correspondants Dinner performance a "gaffe."

He knew EXACTLY what he was doing.

[sce56]

4. What else would you expect from the Liberal Media! n/t

[abq e streeter]

5. Noticed that too, but what do you expect; not polite to notice that the president is an idiot

and that Washington "journalists" are really nothing more than stenographers nad mouthpieces for the dissemination of official propaganda

[lob1]

16. I agree. It was the ballsiest thing I've ever seen a comedian do.

[underpants]

19. Everyone in the audience is trying to act like it didn't happen

so they are trying to rewrite the history of an event that everyone can see on youtube.

Gee wonder why newspapers are in so much trouble

[abq e streeter]

6. And wasn't there link to him on Tom Delay's website for a time

praising Colbert for being one show business figure that bravely stands up to Hollywood liberals, or something like that ? ( yeah ,I know, google is my friend, but I'm tired and lazy)

[sce56]

7. Thanks for reminding me of that one abq e streeter

Tom Delay embraces Stephen Colbert, who was actually making fun of him!
http://homesteadbook.com/blog/?p=152
Congressman Delay is evidently clueless when it comes to Stephen Colbert, too, even after the brouhaha at the White House Correspondents dinner. Delay sent out a fundraising letter for his legal defense linking people to his
website which features Robert Greenwald’s interview on the Colbert Show.

Greenwald is the author of the book “The Big Buy: Tom Delay’s Stolen Congress.” If you watch the show it is pretty obvious that Colbert is making fun of Delay and the tactics of conservative interviewers. As Salon points out, that is what we call “satire.”

UPDATE: The Colbert endorsement has been removed from the Delay link, but check out the website anyway to read about what a lousy person Ronnie Earle is.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 at 12:51 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

[abq e streeter]

9. You're welcome -that's great;one random memory, you do all the work and then thank me

this is a great friggin country.....Meanwhile, I was sleepy 2 hours ago; what the hell am I still doing up??? ( Oh yeah, waiting for the clonazapam to kick in)

[sce56]

10. We all get overloaded with info in this electronic age! n/t

[sce56]

8. Wednesday, May 24, 2006 16:21 EST Colbert feels the love -- from some confused Tom DeLay supporters

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 16:21 EST
Colbert feels the love -- from some confused Tom DeLay supporters

Memo to the folks behind Tom DeLay's legal defense fund: Stephen Colbert is a comedian. And when he sits down with Robert Greenwald, the producer of "The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress," and asks things like, "Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?" -- well, that's what we call "satire," and it probably isn't the best fodder for the fundraising e-mail you just sent to a bunch of your supporters.
― Tim Grieve

[Wednesdays]

11. K&R

[diane in sf]

12. "his most public gaffe" this wasn't a gaffe, it was brilliant and brave.

[sce56]

13. I agree 150%

[Stellabella]

14. Exactly.

It was a brilliant skewering of a bunch of idiots who believed that Colbert was actually right wing. Which was just a sign of their stupidity.

[mascarax]

18. Absolutely! I'm still in awe...sounds like this writer doesn't get it!

"public gaffe" glaringly stood out.

Thanks to all for the Tom Delay info - I never knew that! Hilarious. Maybe he was part of the University study...

[DCKit]

15. It makes me sad that the wingers might be watching show, and still don't get it.

Shame on what we've allowed to become of our educational system.

Then again, it did get him invited to the M$M/BushCo* love-fest a few years back, and we all know how well that turned out - he called out the talking heads as enablers of fascism, poor Georgie's whole night was ruined and a few of our fellow citizens got a little bit smarter.

[The Wizard]

17. Colbert's performance at the

White House Correspondents Dinner was Comedy Hall of Fame quality.
His Ted Hitler routine shedding light on the Jeff Gannon gay male prostitute White House correspondent was genius. That the butt of his humor doesn't get it is why Stephen Colbert is at the height of the comedy triangle.
Mel Brooks subscribes to the belief that the best way to take down a tyrant is through ridicule. Colbert's humor is the modern Springtime for Hitler. The reaction from the media and the White House to Colbert's pointed attack was talked about for weeks after the event.
Bravo Stephen Colbert for pointing at them and laughing.