Stephen Colbert's Political Satire

Stephen Colbert is one of America's most prominent modern satirists. He employs devises such as understatement, irony, and hyperbole on a daily basis to charm and entertain his mainly liberal audience. As the former host of The Colbert Report, Colbert's entire show amounted to a parody of Fox News programming such as Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor. Colbert presents his true opinions and attempts to shape the opinion of his audience by perpetually speaking from the viewpoint of an extreme conservative. This template creates the opportunity for bountiful dramatic irony, in which Colbert expresses exaggerated conservative opinions to an audience that recognizes his folly and is further convinced of the validity of their own political views.

A particularly interesting instance of Stephen Colbert's satire was his speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, see below for a full video. Colbert was presumably invited by President George W. Bush's administration to deliver a pro-Bush comedic speech. Colbert's style of adopting conservative viewpoints and then ridiculing them seems to have gone straight over the heads of the members of the Bush administration. The speech was filled with interesting satirical devices and jabs at the uncomfortably close President Bush.

An early instance of satire in the speech occurred when Colbert insulted the president via understatement: "We're not so different, he and I. We get it. We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol." This quotation illustrates how understatement conveys Colbert's ultimate message that President Bush has a low level of intelligence. Colbert used understatement again later on: "Now there may be an energy crisis." This mild statement illuminated the underlying truth that there was a horrible energy crisis.

Colbert also included verbal irony in his speech when he observed that "I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq." This conclusion is contrary to Colbert's actual belief, and served not only to insult the Bush administration's work in Iraq, but also undermine the popular conservative notion that small government is best.

Another instance of verbal irony betrayed Colbert's true feelings for the Bush administration: "Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, 'Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.'...This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!" The assertion that the administration is soaring carries opposite connotations of the Hindenburg, which, like the Titanic, proved a massive disaster.

Colbert's strategy at the dinner ultimately created an intense atmosphere of dramatic irony. The politicians sitting mere feet away from Colbert were unaware of the insults they were about to endure, while the audience at large was aware of Colbert's true political orientation and motive. This dramatic irony was both hilarious and bold on the part of Stephen Colbert.

Colbert's work qualifies as true satire because he does in fact wish to reform the world. He has a very clear agenda that supports liberal politicians and attacks conservative ones. He does not simply wish to slander and destroy conservative policies, but rather to replace them with the liberal ones he finds to be more suitable.