Why Do Conservatives Like Stephen Colbert?

I remember the Correspondents' dinner, where Colbert skewered Bush; it took a while for Bush to "get it," but I recall a frosty exit, and reluctant suppressed laughter from most of the crowd.
Incidentally, it was the pinnacle of political humor I can remember viewing in my lifetime!

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Sometimes you read something so dumb you have to comment. Is there really any ambiguity about what Colbert is doing? Is it possible he's not just slammin' conservatives upside the head left and right and that really he's doing what...tongue in cheek satire? Give me a break. That's the problem with psychological studies. They can't deal with satire and irony because they're based on numbers. In this case the numbers of people who believe he is really a conservative. Don't get me wrong, he could be a very good actor who doesn't think conservatives are the most pathetic and stupid animals to grace the earth. But that would be an act within the actual act he does which, no matter how you cut it is him bashing them about. nuff said.

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Could it be, and that's just a thought, that the more conservative someone is, the less able they are to perceive irony and/or satire?

I find that often people with a conservative view of the world are less able to laugh about themselves. (And that, for me, is a prerequisite for irony and satire. At least I can't think of a comedian who's not able to make fun of him- or herself. Nor can I think of an actually Conservative comedian. Not voluntarily at least. ;-) )

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...because satire involves being able to understand an opposing attitude in sufficient degree to parody it, and because diehard conservatives (particularly religious ones) consider it against their deepest principles to give any ground of mental consideration to those they have deemed political and/or cultural enemies, they are incapable of creating quality satire -- it amounts to strawman exaggeration at best, with a histrionic tendency towards the dead-serious folk drama of The John Franklin Diaries -- and they have definite beer goggles when it comes to watching something as deadpan and multiply-subversive as Stephen Colbert's pundit persona. After all, he has stated for the ages that "reality has a well-known liberal bias."

It ain't just a general psychological effect -- the conservatives really are seeing less, and seeing only what they're capable and desirous of seeing in so convincing a charade.

As for Colbert...I can read his real political sympathies between the lines, but he's a satirist first and foremost -- and whoever has hypocrisies to highlight and mock is always fair game, regardless of their political affiliation.

More thoughts and bloggery...

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If wing-nuts think Colbert is one of them, they really and truly don't have the capacity of logic. Colbert is so brilliant and so very subtle and cuts right to their hypocrisy which they have no tools to see in themselves.
As someone mentioned above, the Correspondent's dinner bit he did should have given them a clue. BRILLIANT!!

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I just watched the clip they used, and it is fairly ambiguous, but of course an interview with Amy Goodman would be. His intros, The Word, etc. are much less so. Remember academics have to demonstrate their hypotheses to publish and have to publish to keep their careers rolling. So these guys picked an ambiguous clip. I doubt you'd get the same results with a random three minute clip (which would be the appropriate construct for such a study).

That said, a friend's father who is hard core conservative loves the show, or at least did a couple years ago. I think there's probably something to what folks have been saying about conservatives having less of a sense of humor around satire and hyperbole. At some point -- particularly in the whole universities-are-liberally-biased discussion -- we have raise the question: are conservatives just dumber, less informed and/or more brainwashed?

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Interesting article and interesting topic.

Some of the best satire tends to be morally and politically ambiguous. As soon as it takes itself too seriously, it loses its edge. The Python gang and Seinfeld seemed to understand this. Hopefully Colbert does too.

Although...a play on the "very special episode" might be a funny sketch for him...Or has he done that already?

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Have you all forgotten the Colbert Bump? Any politician who has appeared on his show has supposedly received a "bump" up in their polling numbers in an election bid. I wonder if any of the book authors see an increase in book sales like authors who appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show and her Book Club.

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Conservatives are morons

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Conservatives are too dumb to know when the joke's on them. Also, there are almost no creative conservatives in show business. Creativity and bigotry are complete opposites. Even the most hateful, close-minded conservatives cannot support this cognitive dissonance without falling to pieces!

So laugh with Colbert. He is on our side! The joke's on them!

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If liberals deem conservatives morons they'll be at peril of being the dunces. Conservatives are no dummies, which is what in their limited perception of the world makes them so doggedly dangerous.

On the other hand, I do find that it is mostly people with limited understanding, imagination, intelligence and perception that are the most rabid conservatives who cannot even entertain an opposing view point. Very likely that most of these probably don't even get satire.

And if they weren't so dull and managed to 'get it'... most likely then they just wouldn't be conservatives. :^)

evolumental.com

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Too many Conservatives don't understand satire, allegory or figurative language. Just look at how they interpret the Bible, for Christ sake:- )
The right wingers are literalists, but that is not to say that Colbert and his producers don't understand the mirror phenomenon and milk the ratings for ad dollars. Ultimately, the joke may be on all of us.

peace

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Maybe they don't understand that he and Stewart are on "Comedy Central"!

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"Reality is not as much what you see as where you're standing when you look."

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“‘Reality’ is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes.”
—Unknown

We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
—Werner Heisenberg

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
— George Bernard Shaw

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
— Archibald MacLeish

It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.
— Giordano Bruno

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
— Democritus of Abdera

Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking.
— John Maynard Keynes

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity...and I'm not sure about the universe.
— Albert Einstein

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Most conservatives are considerably challenged in the area of irony, whether it is in comedy or not. The chicken hawk neo-cons never quite got the irony of their warmongering any more than the borrow and spend Republicans like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner can see how ridiculous they look for attacking Obama now for spending to try to save the economy. That inability to process anything that doesn't fit into their world view is one of the hallmarks of conservatives.

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A quantitative study of satire is deeply ironic.

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..and that lifetime includes Carlin and Pryor. He is so thoroughly captivating and, as the article points out, he leaves me feeling that only he and I are in on the joke. This is a skill that I have never seen anyone else possess.

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Of course conservatives don't get Stephen Colbert's satire. In order for one to understand what is and is not satire one must possess a spark of creativity and intelligence. Conservatives possess neither.

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I am a conservative.
I am typing this slowly so you can understand.
I know Colbert is a satirist.
I know he's not conservative.
I like him BECAUSE HE'S FUNNY.
And I have an open mind.
Do you?

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There's a Colbert and Stewart interview online at Rolling Stone that gives some insight into the topics discussed in this article. The jist is that they are comedians and the priority of their work is getting laughs.
Colbert also talks about the first time he met O'Reilly and Bush's reaction to the correspondence dinner speech.

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the fact that conservative culture relishes in callousness - an attribute that Colbert takes full advantage of. full of righteous rage, republicans will mock and revile the Purple Heart, and on the other end of the spectrum, award the Medal of Freedom to the most treasonous bastards.

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Colbert attracts a well informed 'on the bright side' crowd. So if they claim to like Stephen folks might think they're smart. Strict conservatives don't like humor in any form. It catches us off guard. They desperately need to feel in control at all times. My take is that they have no idea what he's talking about. They do like the way says it. That great voice of authority. Thanks, ANNA

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There is this theory that all philosophical - as opposed to fiscal - conservatives started off as highschoolers who couldn't get into the "cool" crowd and came to despise them. They now live out their frustrated existence trying to get even. This also means that anyone who had the moral fortitude not to give a damn about being cool in high school grew up to be an independent. Those who happened to have been born with the unique skill set that make certain people charismatic, accomplished, amusing, coordinated, or in some other way attractive in tangible and intangible ways, went on to become progressives. Perhaps because they felt secure enough to be trend setters, to think creatively, rather than to stay within the safe, but suffocating, confines of a box.
In closing, ask yourself whether or not Steven Colbert wouldn’t have been awesome to hang out with in high school. That should answer the question as to his political ideology.

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Colbert is getting very tiring to watch. His ego stands out more than his humor. Now he can't be decent with his guests and the only good interviews are when the guests win the obvious bitch-slap fights.
A shame. He was good. Jon Stewart is getting better and Stephen is getting turned off.

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Confirmation bias. We see what we want to see.

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The example of how racists never quite got the joke of Archie Bunker and used it to "justify" their own racism nails the phenomenon of right-wing desire to be on the Colbert show on the head. They don't quite get the joke. But if they had seen the Correspondents' Dinner show with W and Colbert following, that was a clear instance of Colbert's real leanings. They simply never quite get the joke. It is the genius of both Colbert and, to a somewhat lessor extent, Stewart.

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Marshal Mcluhan said that the high art of the global village would be the put on. That makes Stephen Colbert the Michaelangelo of our day. Rather than donning the mantle of liberal darling that so many are stampeding over each other to present him, Colbert continues to force us to THINK FOR YOURSELF! No small task in this day and age.

I wonder how I could've survived the usurpation of democracy if it hadn't been for this genius. Thanks to this man's brilliant mind (not to mention extraordinary cadre of writers and graphic artists,) I have managed to keep my sanity somewhat, and to get a little news in the bargain.

Thank you Sir Dr. Stephen Colbert! May God bless you with immortality!

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Want to know about the man,,, read his book. I frogot the name of it but his face is plastered on the cover. I ran into his book at a book sale and fliped through it, I look up a few key words like atheist , religion , church, in the index and read some and he sounds like an agnostic to me a real fence sitter taking on both sides trying to offend all equally.What ever works, he has found it and I can't stand agnostics but love this guy!

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Are they really both watching the same Stephen Colbert? Actually, the reason is pretty simple. It is a phenomenon that has been familiar to social psychologists for a long time: confirmation bias.

It's the same way with most folks who focus their attention on whatever pet -ism they are most devout about.

If all you're really interested in looking for is _________, then don't be surprised to find it in relative abundance. Dress it up with catch phrases--i.e. "institutionalized -ism", "enculturated -ism", yada, yada--and you've got the makings of a nice propaganda piece and perhaps a dissertation, if you're of the social so-called sciences persuasion.

Additionally, there are entire cottage industries and major operations devoted to advance/oppose pet -isms. Yes indeed--some folks make a living from exploiting theirs and others biases, "confirmed" or not.

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"Colbert has built a career mocking the right-wing. So why does new research suggest that the comedian is popular with Conservatives?"

I know it is a rhetorical question; but my guess would be it is because they don't get the fact they are being mocked.

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I just definitely quit watching Colbert's interviews, right after his "interview" with Queen Nor. She was trying to talk about her involvement in Global Zero, the campaign to reduce worldwide nuclear weapons to zero. He didn't seem to listen much, except to look for a time to make a joke about a very serious and important topic.

He was especially annoying, because just before that, the premiere interviewer, Jon Stewart, had a wonderful talk with Anwar Sadat's widow.

Quite a startling contrast.

John

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I mean, please, they invited the man to speak at the correspondents' dinner w/out knowing he wasn't a conservative after he had been skewering conservatives on his show for months.

That tells me all I need to know.

I've noticed that the rightwingers in general (I'm sure there are exceptions) don't seem to understand parody, satire, pun, and many other types of humor.

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Colbert has not left the question of his true leanings up in the air at all. There is video of him behind the scenes with John Kerry explaining the nature of the show. Any belief that Colbert is a conservative is probably a case of impaired perceptions.

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they don't know they are being mocked...

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I think when Stephen does a great piece it is genious. But I could not put up with all the faux attacks on the left, that were all-too-real and stopped watching the show after a year. My conservative brother likes Colbert.

His self-agrandizement and attacks on the left, even tho slightly satirical, totally turns me off. This is a shame, as I think he could be brilliant. I do not think he makes it clear enough that he is poking fun at the right when he pokes fun at the left.
I think this study quantifies the obvious.

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Look, you either get or you don't. If you don't, chances are you are probably a conservative.
It's true. Intelligent people tend to have a more sophisticated sense of humor; a broader spectrum of what tickles your funny bone, if you will.
This doesn't mean conservatives don't have a sense of humor- it's that their funny bone goes off more towards slapstick and prat falls. They don't get the humor of say- Jonathon Swift. Hell, they probably wouldn't even crack the book.
Bottom line-it isn't about the funny in your bone,it's about the depth of your perception. The wider your perceptions, the funnier you will find the world to be.
Conservatives?- The Three Stooges.
Liberals?-Lenny Bruce

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You can lump the two together in this fashion:
Consider the preacher, respledent in his clerical garb, standing at an elevated podium, the better to look down his nose at his "flock". Same psychological process as those snotty mansions on hills. Now, look at the "conservative" politician, resplendent in his three thousand dollar suit (compliments of his neocon backers) on an elevated soapbox, the better to look down his nose at his flock.
They're both NEVER wrong, but ALWAYS right.
They're both above any scrutiny or criticism.
They would have their followers believe they're somehow superbeings with godlike status.
Their blathers are aimed at emotional responses, rather than reasoned opinions or arguments. The more noise, the better.
They're BOTH drunk on power and self-aggrandisment.
They BOTH receive payment, one from his followers, and the other from his puppet-masters.

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That they can't tell when they're being mocked! Yes, I think that's what it is. I didn't read the other comments, but I'm sure I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion.

Colbert is too subtle for them. They are generally loud, rude, hard-headed, heavily opinionated people, and they just aren't smart enough to figure it out. Of course, not all of them are so blind, but they all share a rigid philosophy.

Unfortunately, the Democrats aren't much better, and Obama is totally owned by the FED and Wall Street private bankers, the ultimate villians, who are destroying our dollar and looting the wealth of this nation, and undermining its sovereignty with laws like NAFTA, which has a section called Chapter 11 in which private, international arbiters can, as part of a suit against the U.S. government (and they can sue without permission, which is another attack on our sovereignty..anyone else has to get the government's permission to sue!) can overturn Supreme Court decisions! Look it up! If you can find it. I saw it discussed on Bill Moyer's Journal, I believe it was. If the FED doesn't stop creating trillions of dollars outof thin air, the dollar will be destroyed, if it's not alreay too late. We won't know until that money enters circulation.

It's very, very sad, whatwe have become.

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Of course, in questions like this that are posed by writers like this there's always more possibilities or reasons than are mentioned in the article; in the matter of Huckabee's popularity owing to his appearances on Colbert "..."So, from a research point of view, you can ask is this because there are a lot of conservatives who watch Colbert and are now suddenly interested in Mike Huckabee? Is it because they think Colbert is supporting Huckabee?"....." The third and most likely possibility for his popularity is that when he appeared on Colbert Huckabee immediately drew the attention of 'political pundits' all over the country, most of whom are media 'darlings' of one kind or another; print, television, etc. and so garnered the attention of conservatives in the process. I think this is a more likely possibility than conservatives spontaneously tuning into the late night jabbering of Monsieur Colbert.

Regards,
Cyrano

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I recall being a little disturbed by the Goodman interview. I did not feel the ironic notes. It seemed that Colbert was truly put off by someone who is truly of the left and often takes on issues taboo to Colbert: Israel/Palestine, for example.
On reviewing the clip, I see that he did let her speak more than folks he treats gentler.
A couple nights ago, Colbert seemed to be a little hard on Eduard Galeono, author of Open Veins of Latin America, but then did a puff piece on Swedish socialism.
Perhaps he just does not like to be pinned down, but I do think is quite shy of being a revolutionary.

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OK that is name calling, but that's why they don't get it when they are being mocked. Colbert took on torture, and he was clearly against it. He said: "Sometimes you have to do terrible things to get the information you need. And - if there is one valuable piece of information that we have recently learned it's that there are times that we can torture with no repercussions." See April 21, 2009 show

I understand that conservatives might believe that torture is justified (cause they're evil) but Colbert does not.

Colbert is brilliant (not evil) and NOT stupid enough to go on TV promoting torture. Either you get that he's JOKING or you believe it's OK to torture.

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of a Colbert show in NYC a year or two ago, the night Katie Couric was the guest. One of the first things he said when he came out to talk to us beforehand: "Is there anything I can do to redeem myself in your eyes before I slip into that awful character?"

Even without that, it's clear which side he's really on.

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Just another excellent opportunity, of so very many they offer, to point at conservatives and mock their obtuseness.

Tools. Don't even know when they are being laughed at.

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This can't be serious. I know that people that bought into Sarah, dumb and all, Palin "could" misinterpret S. Colbert, but I never thought an actual thinking student would.
That is soooo scary.

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Well, as we know, UNDERFUNDED EDUCATI0N is NOT an ACCIDENT, as it creates folks without good analytical skills, an easily programmed and propagandized citizenry, and impoverished fodder for the military . THIS TIME IT BACKFIRED.

All ANY human being needs to have heard, watched or read was Colbert humiliating George Bush to his face at the Correspondents Dinner, and have seen the LOOK ON BUSH'S FACE, to know where Colbert stands: against EVERY STUPID THING the right wing stands for.

GOOD FOR COLBERT! MAKING MONEY FROM RIGHT WING DUMMIES! (oh, don't tell them, though)

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Thank you. I always thought my right wing neo-conservative father never got the joke of Archie Bunker, which he loved. He really did think Archie was right on.

I don't think there's anything ambiguous about Colbert's political comedy. The correspondents dinner at the White House was proof enough of that. If the wing-nuts are blind enough to think Colbert shares their ideology, its proof that they deserve to be ridiculed to their faces.

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I'm pretty sure Colbert is making fun of everyone, just a little bit. Granted, his interview on the O'Reilly Factor did give away that he was mocking O'Reilly and right leaning pundits a bit - his show really does poke fun at everyone - left, right, middle, and off the charts.

If anyone is fooled into believing he isn't making fun of you (and everyone else) a little bit, then you're a well.. fool.

That doesn't make him any less funny, and it doesn't mean his observations are incorrect - in fact, like Stewart as well - the fact that no party is spared means they probably see things a bit clearer than everyone else.

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It doesn't surprise me that satire can be misinterpreted by the targets of the satire. That doesn't diminish the satire as much as it diminishes those who don't get it. The Archie Bunker example is a good one, but I imagine these people might also read Swift's A Modest Proposal and start trading recipes for preparing poor children.

A more troubling issue is how much this excellent comedy can be used to deflect genuine activism. In the bleak times of Bush/Cheney and now Obama/Biden, it is too easy to rely on the satire as a catharsis – inhibiting public action. That's not anything against Colbert nor Stewart either, but it is a concern that we can't let this hour or so of TV stop us from public action: instead harnessing it to fuel public action.

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--because most of them are too stupid to realize that he's making fun of them. Sophisticated humor is wasted on ideologues.

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His type of comedy strikes me as no better than listening to a school yard bully. He brings intelligent people on his show and proceeds to bully the crap out of them. No wonder impressionable teenagers are so callous now, considering this type of marketing.The right way to make a better world is to ignore this type of retoric.

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Have you been listening to yourselves lately?

On the one hand you claim that conservatives are bigots, racists, idiots, and barbarians. You name call, pigeon-hole and discriminate against an entire group of people who you simply don't agree with on a few issues. So you call them idiots, and not just a few, named individuals, but all conservatives collectively.

It seems to me that there might be a few more bigoted, prejudiced people in your midst than you'd like to think. What's the difference between saying that Blacks are all idtiots from making the statement that conservatives are all idiots. They are both blanket statements reinforced by an individual's prejudices and ignorance.

Why can't some of you accept that his comedy trandscends poltical lines and celebrate that we can all enjoy his show as Americans, no matter what side of the poltical fence we lie on. In the end, let's just ignore the bigots (some of the posters above) and laugh at the guy, that's why he's on TV.

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Perhaps the reason both liberals and conservatives think Colbert is one of them is because he is neither. His "own" politics (behind the persona) seem to be some version of "progressive"--that is, neither liberal nor conservative. Yes, he parodies conservatives relentlessly, but he also uses his conservative persona to point out the many faults of stereotypical liberals as well. So, conservatives are not entirely off base in their admiration for the Colbert character, even though they are more often the targets of the show's satire.

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and from what I've seen, Colbert isn't scared of anyone - nor even of the impression he may leave behind.

Could that be it? I mean, could there for once be a positive explanation for human behavior?

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I consider myself fairly liberal, but when I hear Rush Limbaugh's shtick I don't think of him as a liberal. More like a mean-spirited asshole. I wonder what these doctoral candidates would find in a similar survey on ol' Rushbo.

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While there may be some people who liked Archie because they identified with him, my ex mother-in-law hated him because she realized that he was making fun of everything she stood for. And she wasn't the sharpest cheese on the cracker, either.

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When Naomi Wolf was on Colbert's show pushing her book about the defining characteristics of a fascist state, Colbert was giving her the "conservative" reaction, but it was obvious that she realized he was not at all serious and instead was setting himself up as the fall guy for her thesis. She had to stifle giggles several times. Then his routine for the benefit of Bush & Co. can in no way be interpreted as being conservative. Even W. realized that.

As one person has mentioned, ideologues often lack the mental agility to recognize the twistedness that is necessary for humor and satire. Since the rightwing tends more toward ideology (reality has a liberal bias after all), they are less likely to catch the point.

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why does new research suggest that the comedian is popular with Conservatives?

He could tell you that his Dilbert was enormously popular with bad bosses the world 'round. They're all so egocentric they beleive he's making fun of all those other guys. Even dittoheads want to think they're indiviudals, rising above the herd.

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The reich-wingers love Colbert because they are not smart enough to know that he is mocking them.

See?

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What I think is brilliant about the Colbert Report is that he gives his guests a chance to refute the conservative arguements. He brings them on and then says all the things that conservatives say and the guest gets to say, no that's wrong because...

Maybe it's a good thing that conservatives watch the show. Some of them might just get their minds opened a bit.

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