Submitted 6 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
He said in the past that the reason he didn’t renew his contract with comedy central was because he would suggest something outrageous, and the next day all these republicans would be like “YEAH!!! LETS DO THAT!!! THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE!!!”
And no…it never did. The absurdity was the joke. The right took the joke, didn’t get the joke, and ran with it as a serious idea that they liked. He said that he no longer wanted to be the guy who inspires stupidity.
He timed his contract expiration to match Letterman’s. He really wanted to take over the Late Show, a move that paid off.
In 2010 or so my dad, who now gets his news exclusively from Newsmax, said Colbert was a communist. So, yea
A few thought he was serious. Most understood he was making fun of them. Some thought he was making fun if how liberals and lefties view the right.
I was really really shocked when Bill O’riely brought him on. That’s when I thought they really don’t get the joke. I don’t think they ever did until he started The Late Show.
Dubya Bush brought him to the presidential dinner unironically
I had a right leaning friend who thought it was serious. He was working on his PhD and was extremely smart. It was shocking.
People who are smart in one way are usually not smart in every way.
I find that most people have around the same amount of smarts to spread around. Some people hyper focus it in a specific area, others spread it around. There are obviously outliers, but when I find someone who seems to be notably dense about a topic, I usually ask myself “where are they focusing their attention?”
There are two reasonable ways of interpreting The Colbert Report. One is that he was joking, and this we know is what he intended, because he made himself clear when he was off the show.
The other is that he was trolling. He was throwing things out there and he was joking, but not really. You now see this style from a lot of right wing people. Trump just did it in his correspondents dinner speech where he said he was going to run again in 2028.
It’s because other people come in with their own biased perspectives and they can make some sort of reasonable interpretation that they get the wrong idea and never correct it.
They thought he was real enough to be the MC at one of Bush II’s White House Correspondents’ dinners
He was invited by the WHCA, not the White House or Republicans. They knew what they were getting.
Back then presidents had thicker skin. The job of the WHCD entertainer was to make fun of the sitting president to show what freedom of speech is all about. The job of the president was to take it and smile. He wasn’t invited because they thought he supports Bush. He was invited because they thought he was funny.
Republicans don’t know how to take a joke directed at them, so unless they were absolutely outraged by something on the show, you can safely assume they did not get it.
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 4 minutes ago
Most did, some didn’t. That was already a decade ago. The prism that people see the world through has changed dramatically. It was far easier to discern satire from reality back then.
Things that would have seemed completely impossible in the mid 2010s are reality now. It’s the same reason that nowadays I have to check each news story to see if it’s satire or not.