"The Colbert Report": Many Conservatives Don't Get That It's Satire [VIDEO]

 

According to a new study by three Ohio State professors entitled "The Irony Of Satire: Political Ideology and The Motivation To See What You Want To See In The Colbert Report," both conservatives and liberals find Stephen Colbert funny - but conservatives are much more likely to believe he means what he says and that he genuinely dislikes liberalism.

Wow. Satire can be difficult, but this one shouldn't be so tough to figure out, boys and girls. Take a look at these findings:

Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism.

People will always see what they want to see. Guess that's the brilliance and danger of good satire - in many ways, the joke's on us. 

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