Study finds conservative viewers of Stephen Colbert's comedy show think he's on their side

Study finds conservative viewers of Stephen Colbert's comedy show think he's on their side
by Steve Johnson
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
April 29, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-talk-colbertapr29,0,1905472.column


Do conservatives not understand that Stephen Colbert is joking?

A new academic study suggests Comedy Central's faux-foaming right-winger may be, at minimum, a blank screen onto which people can project their own beliefs. At maximum, he's working a kind of ultimate political con.

Liberals get that he's sending up Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly and his ilk four nights a week at 10:30 CST. And conservatives still find "The Colbert Report" host funny.

"Our results aren't that conservatives don't get the joke. It's that how you see the joke depends on who you are," says Kristen Landreville, a PhD student in communications at Ohio State University and one of three co-authors. "If you're conservative, you think the joke's on liberals because he's openly making fun of liberals."

"The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report" was published in the April issue of the International Journal of Press/Politics.

The researchers asked 332 undergraduate communications students for their interpretation of a clip of Colbert interviewing liberal radio host Amy Goodman. And despite Landreville's generous interpretation, the paper suggests conservative viewers weren't quite comprehending the "deadpan satire" Colbert employs.

"Conservatives not only processed the messages as targeting liberals, but also processed the source as being conservative, Republican, and disliking liberals," the paper says. "By contrast, liberals perceived Colbert as just kidding."

As for Colbert, Landreville says he would probably take the study, in character, as "Here's evidence that everyone loves me." Sure enough, at the show's Web site, the article about the study is headlined, "Science Proves Stephen Colbert Also Popular With Conservatives."