My dad (a conservative) is quite elderly, and the lights are only flickering. The 15-year-old babysitter I use for my 7-year-old daughter is a big fan of Colbert and, evidently, doesn't understand satire. I'm trying to teach my daughter comedy.
The thing these three have in common is they don't get it. Is this something we need to worry about?
I've been posting some rather serious stuff so I thought it would be fun to tackle something superfluous (or perhaps not) for a change. I find Stephen Colbert amusing, but knowing the lack of education and drug intoxication of his demographic (a group Jon Stewart called the "Stoned Slackers" on O'Reilly), I wonder if there aren't some young people out there taking him at face value. Although they are young, he has said in interviews that he doesn't allow his own children to watch his show. I'd like to believe Americans are smart enough to recognize satire, but I'm not so sure. There are a lot of really stupid people in this country. A significant percentage still believe Iraq had something to do with 9-11. An even greater percentage believes our planet is 6,000 years old, in spite of every bit of scientific evidence to the contrary. Roughly 30% think Bush is doing a good job. Case closed.
I guess my point is while Colbert is humorous, his satire could (and probably is) misinterpreted by very dumb people. He's been on a book tour and appearing on all the talk shows and, although I haven't read it, I hope his book "dumbed down," so there is no confusion about what he is doing. (Although I would be only interested in reading something totally insane in an Anne Coulter realm.)
Maybe the problem isn't even with the "Stoned Slackers." Maybe the problem is with the older Fundamentalist Christians who might catch a rebroadcast of his show on Comedy Central in the morning (when I watch it) or in the afternoon or early evening. These are people that believe everything they see on TV.
Well it's hardly my best post, but do you think Stephen is being misinterpreted by idiots?