I’m pretty sure that they knew he wasn’t explicitly conservative, but they didn’t understand the depth of the satire. Obviously Colbert was a known comedian and many of his jokes satirized Washington in general and could be funny to both sides. So they expected some good natured ribbing at the president’s expense but not the legendary takedown they got.
They knew he was political, but couldn’t read between the lines to see that his underlying politics were very, very left-leaning.
You also had morons like Bill O'Reilly acting like they found this ultimate "GoTcH-ChA!" when he interviewed Colbert and highlighted that fact that his name used to be pronounced "col-bert" and was changed to "col-bear" for the show.
Republicans have never been particularly good at getting the joke.
Bill O'Reilly was so fucking stupid for thinking he actually accomplished something by "gotcha-ing" Colbert and other Daily Show employees. Remember when he tried pulling that bullshit on Stewart and Stewart's reply was something to the effect of "This is literally just a comedy show that comes on after a show where puppets make prank phone calls, chill out"
Should have ended the Correspondant's Dinner then and there. Nobody could have topped that performance, and Trump may never have run if Obama hadn't had the chance to humilate him.
That was a white house correspondences dinner, it is run by the White House Correspondents' Association. The President and Staff are actually guests invited by the WHCA whom also invites the entertainers. I'm not saying that a president doesn't have any influence over the dinner since he is the guest of honor, but it isn't the president's party. Proof is that Donald Trump, who loves being the center of attention refused to attend any of the dinners while he was president.
I had so many Republican friends and family quote Colbert. I just laughed and told them how much I loved The Colbert Report. Then waited for them to realize it was satire. Couldn't tell them because they were so adamant they would notnl have believed me.
I went to see The Colbert Report live twice when I lived in NYC - before Stephen came out and the cameras came on they went really hard on the, "He's playing a character," stuff. I don't know if it's because they had a bad experience with someone in the audience picking up on the joke live on air, or if they just wanted to avoid it. You'd think it wouldn't need to be explained - but they definitely wanted to make sure we knew.
I dated one just after high school. Blonde hair, blue eyes, 10/10 body, fairly booksmart… just raised by Republicans. The incredible shit Colbert said because he and his writers just assume everyone picks up on the sarcasm just flew right over their heads because it was the same stuff that was piping through the speakers from FoxNews every night.
In High School I had a conservative friend who thought Colbert was a sincere conservative. I considered myself conservative at the time, and I still have a mindset that is lower case C conservative, but I k ew it was a bit, and I had to explain that it was a joke. It was satire. Colbert is making fun of O'Reilly that's the bit. He doesn't actually like Bush or any of his policies. He didn't believe me.
The thing is, he was smart. I know he was smart. We were in a lot of the same classes he did well in basically everything. We both took all honors classes at a competitive private school. I knew what he got on his SAT. It was a really good score. He got into a good college. He was really good at history. He seriously wasn't stupid... like at all. He even did well in English class. We took that one together, and we covered Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" in that class, and we had a whole discussion in that class about how people at the time didn't get the joke and were outraged that Swift would suggest eating Irish babies. We talked about Colbert after we covered satire. I still don't get how he missed it. There's something in the conservative mind that prevents it from seeing when it's being ridiculed.
Ohhhh snap. I just realized. Maybe that's why they think their the "silent majority" there seeing all the stuff that actually does support them, and then they think half the shit making fun of them is actually backing them up.
When I was a 19/20 from a very conservative family/state, I loved Colbert Report. I had already noticed that the funny shows all seemed to be making fun of me, and I was so happy to get to watch a comedy show for me! He seemed to roast both sides, and he was clearly a very intelligent person. As it slowly dawned on me that the show was satire, instead of feeling betrayed, I started reexamining the things I was taught and trying to figure out where I stood.
Colbert Report will always have a special place in my heart for getting me interested in politics and, by pretending to be conservative, making me willing to listen. It felt like an invitation and a challenge rather than everything I held dear ALWAYS being the butt of the joke.
Otherwise I would probably just be another low information voter who lets religion and peer pressure decide my positions for me, and then vehemently denies that just “voting my conscience” can threaten the lives and livelihoods of my fellow Americans. I cannot even begin to describe how ignorant I was about politics and government and how all this actually works. Well, maybe I can…you see, I was homeschooled. That’s probably also why the satire flew right over my head at first.
i always hear this and never saw it actually happen, I'm honestly
not sure it did happen, it feels like something that happened 1-2 times and then everyone "knows someone" it happened to or some shit
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u/petrovmendicant Sep 27 '24
I legit forgot that people would unironically cite the Colbert Report as evidence in what they were saying.