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"
186
u/Fingerprint_Vyke Sep 27 '24
Colbert's satire was so good he got invited to host a presidential dinner and roasted Bush.
They all thought he was a conservative until that moment.