Ohio University did a study, with math and numbers, that conservatives didn’t know that Colbert on the Colbert Report is joking. You can read about it here, or if you want to read the actual study, go here.
From the abstract of the article:
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. 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. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert’s political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
I can’t believe someone did a study about this.
That really is amazing. Maybe the knuckle-scraping stereotype is correct after all.
This is interesting. I have actually wondered about this before.
What in tarnation? That there man ain’t no God-fearin’ Republican?
By the way, I need some ointment for my scraped up knuckles. Know where I can get any?
You can get some neosporin, I guess. I also have this prescription medicine that’s like super-neosporin if you want some.