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Colbert Study: Conservatives don't know he's joking

skeptigirl said:
If I had the time. The first couple sources I found weren't clear if Colbert was role playing his character. This one seems a bit more certain:
SC: I love my Church, and I'm a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That's totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.
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But that last sentence could be more satire or more devout than one would guess. Lot's of Catholics are more ritualistic about their beliefs and less 'jesus devotees'.
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Oh, the irony.

And the actual study being discussed? Everyone who took part in the study stated that they knew his character was satire. It's not that anyone was actually fooled otherwise as the title of this thread (and other one-line descriptors of the study) seem to be suggesting. Instead, what the study is displaying, in fairly plain form, is the presence of obvious confirmation bias that people have regarding their political (and other) ideologies.

Colbert has been on Fresh Air with Terri Gross (and other interviews), and in many of them he's stated that he's mostly middle-of-the-road in his personal politics, but that he doesn't like to talk about them. Considering the job he has (political satire), that's a smart thing for him to do because it keeps focus on the character he's created rather than on himself as a real person. That's one thing he has up on Stewart, even though I find Stewart's comedy more fun as a whole.
 
GreNME said:
Colbert has been on Fresh Air with Terri Gross (and other interviews), and in many of them he's stated that he's mostly middle-of-the-road in his personal politics, but that he doesn't like to talk about them. Considering the job he has (political satire), that's a smart thing for him to do because it keeps focus on the character he's created rather than on himself as a real person. That's one thing he has up on Stewart, even though I find Stewart's comedy more fun as a whole.
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The difference is that Stewart is not playing a character to the extent that Colbert is. I don't think he interviews in character.
 
skeptigirl said:
If I had the time. The first couple sources I found weren't clear if Colbert was role playing his character. This one seems a bit more certain:But that last sentence could be more satire or more devout than one would guess. Lot's of Catholics are more ritualistic about their beliefs and less 'jesus devotees'.
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I'm a big Colbert fan and he regularly quotes passages from the Bible in interviews he does with guests when the subject comes us. He is supposedly a Sunday School teacher in real life (as opposed to his character.)

I have no problem accepting that he is both a Christian who is extremely knowledgeable about the Bible and a liberal.

Actually, on reflection, I have a much harder time understanding how someone might have an encyclopedic knowledge of the New Testament and be a Republican.
 
ponderingturtle said:
The difference is that Stewart is not playing a character to the extent that Colbert is. I don't think he interviews in character.
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Well, yeah. They operate in different modes, and for different reasons. Both are quite good at what they do, but Colbert's character enables him to have more leeway in really reaching for buttons with people to see if an entertaining outcome can be had, while Stewart tries to find the entertainment within the contextual theme of his interviewees. Each requires a good bit of ability to randomly associate silly or funny stuff at the drop of a hat.
 
rwguinn said:
Confirmation bias. Republican=Right-Winged Christian=stupid.
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But they have done such a good job at branding themselves as such recently, look at the last republican president and the most popular conservative commentators.
 
rwguinn said:
Confirmation bias. Republican=Right-Winged Christian=stupid.
Get over yourself.
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The entire study displayed confirmation bias among its participants. The results basically pointed out that people of a given political ideology are going to focus more heavily on what they perceive as confirming to that political ideology.

That why I'm scratching my head at the claims like "Conservatives don't know he's joking." The actual study shows that they do know he's joking, and much like the liberal or the independent participants felt that his jokes affirmed their own political ideas, conservatives felt that his jokes affirmed their own political ideas. Not really all that amazingly ground-breaking, if you ask me.
 
ponderingturtle said:
But they have done such a good job at branding themselves as such recently, look at the last republican president and the most popular conservative commentators.
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What about the most popular liberal commentators? The fact that they preach to the choir is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the choir's critical thinking.
 
ponderingturtle said:
But they have done such a good job at branding themselves as such recently, look at the last republican president and the most popular conservative commentators.
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Thanks. That's entirely my point. Of course there are religious Christian liberals, for one thing that is more like the message of the New Testament than conservativism.
 
rwguinn said:
Confirmation bias. Republican=Right-Winged Christian=stupid
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I know several Republicans who are not Christian. I know quite a few who are not stupid. I even know some that aren't right-winged. But I suppose none of them are true Scotsmen Republicans.
 
Bob Klase said:
I know several Republicans who are not Christian. I know quite a few who are not stupid. I even know some that aren't right-winged. But I suppose none of them are true Scotsmen Republicans.
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Me neither, I guess.
But then, I have been called stupid by several of the more Left-wing types here... (flame suit ON, Coolant flow to MAX):D
 
Tricky said:
I made this point about Colbert to Ms. Tricky more than a year ago. I like Colbert, but I'm not what you'd call a "fan". Ms. Tricky records his show every night (and watches most of them). She asked me why I didn't like Colbert more. I replied, "His act is too good."
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That's me and my husband exactly. I watch it eagerly every night. He usually watches with me for a bit then says he can't take any more, he's going to bed. He says he makes the conservatives' point a little too well sometimes...
 
rwguinn said:
Me neither, I guess.
But then, I have been called stupid by several of the more Left-wing types here... (flame suit ON, Coolant flow to MAX):D
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Now, now. Ease up a bit there, champ. I'm with you on the confirmation bias part but I'm bowing out if the scrappin' starts digging into us-vs-them stuff.
 
He's a bit over the top for me.
That he skewers the conservative viewpoint -should- be obvious.
That it isn't is hilarious!
His mind is -so- quick with the comic/serious comeback it's astounding, when he's interviewing some windbag.
When he was invited to that dinner with Bush, i wondered WTF? are those guys thinking?
Can't they comprehend his politics aren't theirs?
 
skeptigirl said:
That's very hard to believe. He has some of the boldest god sarcasm on TV. I'm wondering if you aren't one of the people the study was talking about mistaking satire for real Christian rhetoric?

Where's your evidence?
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Virtually every biography or biographical entry on Colbert explains his Catholic upbringing and his occasional work as a Sunday School teacher. I haven't been able to trace that back to the exact church he attends but I'm sure you will find it if you look carefully enough.

It's odd that even though Glenn Beck has told the New York Times that he's a rodeo clown, you'd still take his act seriously. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/media/30beck.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all )

Entertainment works on all sides of the political spectrum. That's the issue here. None of these people we are talking about are actually contributing positively to a mature political debate. They are all rodeo clowns.

My argument is that your thread is titled too narrowly. It ought to read: People Take Televised Opinion-Makers Seriously. Or something similar to that. Any study focusing just on Colbert and "conservative" reaction to him has built in a bias that has no place in academia.
 
Bob Klase said:
I know several Republicans who are not Christian. I know quite a few who are not stupid. I even know some that aren't right-winged. But I suppose none of them are true Scotsmen Republicans.
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And how did they reacted when the head of the republican party kissed Rush Limbaugh's butt?
 
ponderingturtle said:
I know several Republicans who are not Christian. I know quite a few who are not stupid. I even know some that aren't right-winged. But I suppose none of them are true Scotsmen Republicans.
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And how did they reacted when the head of the republican party kissed Rush Limbaugh's butt?
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I'm not sure, I didn't ask them. Can they have different opinions from each other or are they all required to have the same reaction to be Republicans?
 
Bob Klase said:
I'm not sure, I didn't ask them. Can they have different opinions from each other or are they all required to have the same reaction to be Republicans?
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The point is that the republican party intentionaly turned itself into the insane jesus moron party. This does not fit many people who would want to call themselves republicans but it is not an inaccurate view of the party leadership.
 
ponderingturtle said:
The point is that the republican party intentionaly turned itself into the insane jesus moron party. This does not fit many people who would want to call themselves republicans but it is not an inaccurate view of the party leadership.
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That's true. And had rwguinn written "Republican Leadership=Right-Winged Christian=stupid" I probably wouldn't have responded to it.
 
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