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."
Study finds conservative viewers of Stephen Colbert's comedy show think he's on their side -- chicagotribune.com
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."
Study finds conservative viewers of Stephen Colbert's comedy show think he's on their side -- chicagotribune.com
And draft dodger Dick still thinks the show is on air, he continues to perform an act that makes absurdity seem normal. 
