Use Of Satire In The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report, is a satirical news show aired by Comedy Central and hosted by a fictional personality, played by and named after, Stephen Colbert. This comedic approach to the news often involves making light of serious issues, something that comes back to almost end the show, when in a particular taping Colbert made a racial joke. Later a tweet was released, not authorized by Colbert, that contained the same joke, however it was taken out of context and resulted in a one-sided battle to “Cancel Colbert”. Stephen Colbert uses satire and the fact that his television personality is fictional to argue that the media, both social and news, are dysfunctional.

Most people would not enjoy watching a newscaster who is as egotistical and racist

as Colbert can be, except we have the knowledge that it is all an act. Thus we laugh at his jokes, rather than being offended by them. Similarly, a large ego does not normally make someone likeable, but the openly narcissistic character is a much loved personality, for instance Colbert says, “This was close. We almost lost me. I’m never going to take me for granted ever again.” followed by the audience laughing at the joke. Ironically the ‘me’ that Colbert is addressing is a fake person, who cannot technically be ‘lost’, even his tone during this sentence is teasing, giving the impression that he knows the irony of his own statement. The controversy tested the boundaries of satire and acceptable behavior, with some people seeing the controversy as a simple misunderstanding, and others who believed that Colbert had truly meant what he had said. Colbert makes a mockery of this by saying that he is, “… The real Stephen Colbert. I mean everything I say on this show.” But if you look at the words as they were meant to be read, satirically, his words mean the contrary, something like, “I mean everything I don’t say on this show.” Easily explaining the rest of the show, especially when he ‘praises’ the media.
Colbert’s character is radically different than any other newscaster, what with his blatant disregard for media and social norms, with this he freely speaks his mind on issues that most newscasters would simply never mention.

His blatant disregard for media norms begins with him taking a swig out of a beer on camera, something most all networks look down upon, not only does this challenge standards but also gives the impression that Colbert is not to be taken seriously. Colbert uses this to his advantage, before drinking the beer Colbert makes the comment that his show has “youth friendly product placement”, this backwards logic hints at the pervasiveness of alcohol and drugs in the media, particularly found in adolescent television shows. At the beginning of the segment, the audience is cheering “Stephen” and clapping, Colbert blows kisses and acknowledges the crowd, making him seem less of a newscaster and more of a comedian, furthering the degradation of his authority. Similarly, the racial joke that got Colbert in trouble was, on its own, an attempt to explain the issue surrounding Dan Snyder’s The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. As said by Colbert, the controversy began because it was, “…an obvious attempt to win over Native Americans cause it only uses the term ‘Redskins’ once in its name.” In reality the issue was that the term ‘redskins’ is a derogatory name for Native Americans and that many believed the charity was simply a publicity stunt for

the sports team. According to Colbert he was inspired by Dan Snyder to make his own charity: The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever. This ‘charity’ name appeared to anger people more than The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, despite the fact that both contain racial slurs and that one was fake. Among these angered Twitter networkers was Michelle Malkin who co-signed to end The Colbert Report, Colbert said during his segment that her ‘betrayal’, “…cuts deep, especially since I learned everything I know about sensitivity to the Asian American experience from reading Michelle’s 2004 book, In Defense of Internment.” The book was condemned for being incredibly biased and many believed Malkin had violated her professional standards. This blatant hypocrisy only furthered Colbert’s argument that the media is dysfunctional and even, hypocritical.
Parallel to the social media, the news media is also arguably dysfunctional. Colbert begins by saying, “To find out what happened to me on the internet we turn to the T.V.” Then the screen is filled with clips from different news channels and talk shows, all talking about #CancelColbert, as it was being called. While not obvious at first, this was a jab at the news companies, and it served to allow the audience to see that the news was coming from an illegitimate source, the internet. This continued through the show with Colbert later explaining the story was, “… picked up by a small group of Americans who get their information only from Twitter. The news media.” The idea that a news story came solely from the internet, and even worse from a social networking site, is cause enough to disregard a story, as a good news story should have much more information and research to back it up. Not long after he mentions this issue that Colbert takes aim at one respected news channel in particular, CNN, of which he said, “CNN even took a break from their Malaysian airliner coverage to report spotting what they thought was the wreckage of my show off the coast of Australia.” For a major news company to knowingly ‘take a break’, as Colbert put it, from a major disaster to focus on something as trivial as a Twitter misunderstanding is rather irrational. During these segments, of course, Colbert stays under the guise that these are all good things, due to his ego, only furthering his clever usage of satire to reveal the Medias’ flawed system.
Social media’s continued prevalence in the news media is something that has caused the two to almost work hand-in-hand on many cases and considering many of the top tier news outlets, such as CNN, The Huffington Post and Forbes, all have Social Media tabs on their websites only further proves their intertwined relationships.

While this might not seem overtly concerning in fact it could, given time, become very serious. Should the news one day be filled with stories from social media the professionalism and impartial views of news will be compromised. In a sense, the idea of news will be completely ruined, and instead there will only be the spreading of rumors, backed up by opinion rather than facts. Colbert makes it a point to try to convey this by using his alternate personality to expose the media for its shortcomings, including the break in coverage of an international issue. Perhaps this backwards way is best put by Colbert’s sardonic ending to his show, “To recap: a web editor I’ve never met, posts a tweet in my name, on an account I don’t control, outrages a hashtag-activist, and the news media gets 72 hours of content. The system

worked.”