I am not making this up! “The Irony of Satire” is the actual name of a study done at Ohio State University on “biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report”. The study compared conservatives and liberals, and how they reacted to Stephen Colbert.
Interestingly, both groups thought that Colbert was funny. But the ironic part is that “conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said” (in other words, they think he’s funny, but they don’t actually get the joke). Liberals, on the other hand, “were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements”.
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I think before jumping to conclusions you should administer some common-sense analysis of this report about Colbert viewers. Not aking any sides, consider that
Colbert uses satire and sarcasm but he often means what he says, in that he is making a clear point.
I’d say he wasn’t ‘serious’ when he mades those comments (and really, to say that about everything he says? come on) but the content is usually making a serious point.
Colbert is a comedian using irony to prove the opposite point. The study should be titled, “Note to conservatives: You *never* go full retard”.
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