Back in the fall of 2003, after my horse’s ass initiative but before I started blogging, I shopped a satirical guest column around to the various daily papers. The Seattle Times and Seattle P-I promptly took a pass, but David Seago at the News Tribune was “sorely tempted … to stir the pot.”
Tim Eyman had been threatening to run an initiative that would have slashed the state school levy by 25%, cutting $800 million from K-12 spending per biennium during an economic downturn in which the state was already struggling to balance the budget. Inspired by Jonathan Swift’s satirical masterpiece, A Modest Proposal, I proposed that we could indeed cut taxes and while improving academic performance… if only we would harvest our schools’ lowest performers, and feed them to their fellow schoolmates.
I was pretty damn proud of my dry, Swiftian tribute, believing I’d found a way to clearly present some rather wonky data in an entertaining manner. But alas, after mulling it over for a couple weeks, the TNT declined as well, fearing that too many of their readers lacked the satire gene.
“Sometimes you just have to put a big red sign reading ‘SATIRE’ out there for those people who inevitably won’t get it,” Seago emailed me, a sentiment I found to be incredibly over-cautious considering I was suggesting cannibalism, for chrisakes. Needless to say, the essay went unpublished, and while I ultimately had less entertaining, more solemn guest columns printed in the Times, P-I and TNT, this particular rejection certainly played a role in motivating me to start my own blog.
But… as it turns out, Seago probably knew his audience a helluva lot better than I did, for as a new study from The Ohio State University once again proves, there are a lot of folks out there who just don’t get satire… and most of them are conservatives.
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.
That’s right… Colbert actually resonates with conservatives in his audience because they think he’s really one of them. They just don’t get the joke.
Not that, after nearly five years of blogging, I should be the least bit surprised. Here on HA we’ve always dabbled in satire, much to the confusion and dismay of some of our more concrete, righty trolls, who just can’t wrap their rigid little minds around the difference between being serious and being solemn. Indeed, intentional ambiguity has almost become a hobby of mine, if only for the amusement of watching my trolls get hopelessly mired within the lines while futilely attempting to read between them.
Many conservatives just don’t get satire. And that explains a lot.
Sorry goldy, the new yorker magazine cover with obama proved that liberals just don’t get satire, even from a fellow left-winger.
I’d say the conservatives are more serious-natured than liberals. Most good comics are liberals, but most good serious-natured folks are conservative. Purely anecdotal evidence, of course.
Owned @1.
Owned @1.
Sorry Goldy, but your attempt to associate yourself with Colbert fails.
Conservatives don’t get satire? Not to use first-hand experience, but from what I’ve observed, it is your band of spear-catchers here who don’t really get the nuances of a good joke. Outside the ChimpyBushHitler McHaliburtonRove two-dimensional sort.
Here’s the deal. The reason why some conservatives dig Colbert isn’t because they think he is one of them. It is because conservatives are able to poke fun at themselves. It’s self-deprecatory. Which is the key to any good comedian or person with a sense of humor. You’ve got to be secure enough to laugh at yourself.
It looks like the conservative trolls are humorlessly trying to prove that they ARE humorous and satirical.
Maybe they are — but recent reversals have left a ha ha ha SPECTRE ha ha ha ho ho … that is queering their normally lighthearted nature.
re 5: Where were you when the Borsht Belt was dying? You are a scream.
If you wear a suit, I’ll bet the lining is bright red!
@3 & 4, @5 – way to prove Goldy’s point! “Owned” and “spear-catchers”? Was that supposed to be funny? Jay-zus. Leave comedy to the professionals, geniuses…
While you pride yourself in your satiristical
superiority I must inform you from a conservative point of view you can’t imagine whats going over your head.
@5
Bullshit. You guys are paranoid, fearful, resentful of everyone, and incapable of humor You’re Puritans,nothing has changed in 500 years.
What a bad day to be wingnut troll!
LMFAO!!!
Yeah, you’re funny, alright!
LMFAO!!!
@9 LMFAO!!! Damn, you guys are fucking hilarious!
Just not in the way you might hope! LMFAO!!!
Even P.J. O’Rourke’s smirking trenchantcy of yore is looking pretty lame these days.
Hey, Don, how about some ‘self-deprecatory’ humor on the Terry Schiavo case?
Projection much?
Although to be honest, the gals dressed in naughty Puritan outfits around Halloween are kind of hot…
http://www.onlinegeneralstores...../32713.jpg
Man, you tards are a miserable bunch. Kind of sad but entertaining and at the same time you deserve it.
Shocking, of course nary a word or mention about the Obama Administration’s “flyover” in NYC on this worthless blog. Watch Gibbs, who is a blithering idiot on cam fumble, and his buddy White House Military secy. Caldera crash and burn. Yep, Lord Obama sure knows how to pick em’!
@ 9:
I know what you mean. If you only knew what we knew you’d know. You know?
That’s why waterboarding works!
Goddamn, Cornelius has a HUGE ass and is bowlegged as hell
Goldy–
Let’s see…Goldy and his Northwest Division of Lunatic Moonbats be are always quick to be offended by SATIRE.
Heck Goldy, I just used SATIRE with our discussion about your promoting excessive vulgarity on the Public Airwaves by simply asking if you would like your daughter exposed to it…AND YOU WENT NUTS!!
Goldy loves SATIRE…when he can deliver the punch. Goldy can dish it out, but cannot take it.
C’mon Goldy…admit it. You HATE being on the receiving end of anything satirical.
No Satire Jean? Many Cons don’t have any blue jeans! HAHA!
Regardless, I get a good joke.
That’s why I come here on a regular basis.
Heh heh
My response to the whole student-eat-student cannibalism joke: Eat Me!
Mmwwahahahahahaah!
@ 16;
Stop being a Republican and get your facts straight first before you make remarks about the “Obama admin.”
No FUCKNIG joke here.
Mr. Cynical,
When are you going to apologize to our troops after you shit on them for following the Bush torture memo at Abu Grahib??
When are you going to apologize to Gold Star mothers?
Satire? Mr. Klynical probably thinks blowing up frogs is funny too.
You guys just don’t get it and never will.
@22 Bye the bye, Mr. Klynical ran away from another trade confirmation challenge today. What a fucking loser.
Geez, Goldy, why do you need 559 words to tell us Republicans have no fucking sense of humor?
@2 There’s no such thing as a “good” conservative. All the good conservatives — you know, smaller and less intrusive government — have been run out of the GOP by the fascist element that wants to kidnap and torture innocent Iraqis and line their cronies’ pockets with taxpayer dollars.
@5 “who don’t really get the nuances of a good joke”
Oh, but we do! We know Coulter is kidding when she talks about putting us in concentration camps and executing us. It’s only her followers — the ones that wildly cheer and applaud and whistle and stamp their feet when they hear this line — that we worry about.
@19 When it comes to pure unadulterated satire, few things in this world are as rib-tickling funny as the picture of a dirty old Republican fucking a goat!
re 19: Well, you don’t like it much when I gull you about your dying mother’s cardio-workouts on the exercycle.
Now THAT’S funny!!!
George Will writing about baseball is very funny.
I’ll bet his schoolboy days were spent dodging wedgies rather than hefting his Louisville Slugger.
Of course conservatives get satire, just take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPF9-o-YHGM
Looks like they get it to me.
It’s been reported that someone saw public records tycoon Stefan Sharansky chuckling on his way to the bank last week.
This is consistent with information I’ve received about conservatives, which is the only time they ever laugh is when they’ve got their hands on someone else’s money.
So you think Steffy will start trying to support himself now or will he still rely on his ugly wife to be the breadwinner at the house?
@31: Saw the video – and that was not only not funny, it was stupid. Is that the best you can come up with for supposed satire?
Lousy music, lousy singing and almost pointless with nothing funny? That ain’t satire – that is stupidity.
Good atire requires an ability to objectively look at the way things are and to parody it. It takes wit, intelligence and a biting sense of humor.
As demonstrated by our low-grade trolls – the average right wingnut can barely relpeat the things that rush tells them – to expect them to savagely parody the vagaries of odern life would be way to high a demand on thier intelligence, their egos and their perceptive powers.
They just could not handle it. They can’t handle the truth!
31
That was not satire. That was a poorly written essay put to bad music. There was no lightness, no nuance, no poetry. It actually reminds me of pro-revolution music from Cuba (except for how bad the music is)–propaganda set to a beat. Sorry, man, you don’t know what satire is. The point of the thread is proven.
You’re the Daniel Defoe of your time.
@35,
Hey, don’t forget it was the workers in the Soviet Union who chided: “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”
Although the Trotskyites never caught on to humor of any kind. Take Irving Kristol, please.
@13, MajorMajor: Yes. O’Rourke’s latest stuff has devolved into the kind of mean spirited gibberish you find at Little Green Footballs.
Humorist he is no more by any stretch.
@19, KKKynical muses, “I just used SATIRE with our discussion about your promoting excessive vulgarity on the Public Airwaves by simply asking if you would like your daughter exposed to it……”
A more exquisite proof of Goldy’s point cannot possibly exist.
What a loser you are KKK. Hey, I hear Wells Fargo is posed for a big turnaround. Maybe you ought to buy more of it.
yeah, you jews only get satire when its attacking christians
@3&4;
Isn’t it ‘pwned’?
Hey, Mr. Klynical, Goldy has my trade confirmations. He’s waiting for yours now. Oh, that’s right, you never made any trades.
OMG, could Marvin have done a better job of making Goldy’s point for him? How pathetic.
The New Yorker cover was an attempt at satire, but good satire requires a modicum of truth. There wasn’t any truth in that cover.
Now, caricatures of George Bush and Dick Cheney smirking while looking at such caricatures of Michelle and Barak Obama, that would have been good satire.
Shorter OSU: Conservatives are too stupid to figure it out.
24. Steve spews:
Ahhhh, not even close Kountry Klubber.
YOU Said you would post your trade confirmation. Period.
YOU are running away.
Are you nuts?
Or just a profane drunkard?
42. Steve spews:
No KLOWN, YOU said YOU would post them.
Bad try==No Sale
#31
That was the stupidest thing I’ve seen in a while. Also, not very accurate and it sorta forgot to mention that huge deficit Junior ran up.
@5
Um, Don, the study didn’t show that conservatives like Colbert, it showed that conservatives didn’t know he was kidding. My god you’re retarded.
’21. GBS spews:
@ 16;
Stop being a Republican and get your facts straight first before you make remarks about the “Obama admin.”’
Keep ignoring the point of my post asshole. I welcome your “spin” on Lord Obama and Co.’s big ole’ fuck up on this topic. If this stunt had been by anyone (R) you hypocritical ignoramouses would have had a field day to no end. Your hypocrisy is entertaining at the very least. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEKPYLZhAzw
@46 Idiot. I can’t post documents on this blog and you know it. All you have now are weak excuses that nobody buys into. Goldy has my trade confirmations. I directed him to the posts on the Swine Flu Update thread. He can post them if he wants. I don’t care. Meanwhile, we’re all waiting for you to send him your Wells Fargo trade confirmations. That is, if you had any to send. But you don’t. You’re a lying piece of shit and I’m calling you on it.
You bragged incessently about your investing and taking risks. Well, the time came to act and you were paralyzed with fear, your withering faith in America and capitalism both shattered. You did nothing. You lost out. You blew it.
Did you notice that the Rasmussen Poll shows that President Obama’s Approval Index is soaring? Two and a half times higher than just last week. We all know why you quit posting those poll results. Now please tell everybody here just how much that sucks for you.
This is one tale of irony that I won’t be forgetting soon.
I still do find it shocking that Don Ward thinks that self-defacation is satire.
Sicko!!!
What is funny is that failures like Lee like to call people names when they are posting anonymously. Yet when I show up to DL, they act like the pussies which they are and hide in the corner. So I hope that next time I show up to Montlake, you’re man enough to insult me to my face. Would love to see it.
Oh, and again, work on your fucking reading comprehension. Second and third sentences in paragraph two @ 5 addresses your idiocy.
What is funny, is that you guys take a study written by a couple of grad students and then accept it as the gospel truth.
Tracing back all the links, the original story comes from this article which has no information about the study, its sample size, control, questions asked, peer review, etc.
http://hij.sagepub.com/cgi/con.....t/14/2/212
Apparently the lead author of the study is one Heather L. LaMarre who is a grad student at THE Ohio State University’s prestigious school of communication.
http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu.....dents.aspx
Use The Google before you start lauding something you have read online.
Channeling my inner Richard Pope here but apparently LaMarre specializes in “Mass and Heatlh Communication with a special interest in persuasion”
The second author of the study, one Kristen Landreville, specializes in “The intersection of mass and interpersonal communication on political and social outcomes, especially how uncertanty and emotion influence communication”
And the third author, Michael Beam, is smart enough not to use hard-to-spell words. “Media and Tech, Internet, New Media“.
And you guys here, and the Huffington Post, give credence to this triumvirate? In my book, that’s what you call humor.
What is funny, is I started two responses with the phrase, “what is funny”. Sigh. Too much tail-chasing and Oly.
@48hey lee, who did the study, the same fucking jew polsters who get to lie and the msm doesnt call them on it? like zogby declaring kerry the presidential winner? kikes and criminals, all of you
Lee the bet welcher just had a kid. With any luck, he’ll grow up the second time through the child rearing process, as it didn’t appear to take the first go around.
As for Colbert and Jonathan Leibowitz, I don’t watch their schtick mostly because they aren’t that funny. It’s pretty sad that the majority of liberals get their news from The daily report and actually think they’re learning the new of the day. Pathetic really.
Adding white octogenarian to your party is icing on the cake.
What is funny is that failures like Lee like to call people names when they are posting anonymously. Yet when I show up to DL, they act like the pussies which they are and hide in the corner. So I hope that next time I show up to Montlake, you’re man enough to insult me to my face. Would love to see it.
Yeah! Stuck up bitches! You’ll show them. Lee’s in for a big surprise when he tries to hang out at your locker after home room. And wait ’til he sees how you’ve taken all the pictures of him off your Myspace page and you’re not his Facebook friend anymore.
You’re the Queen Bee! And don’t let anyone forget it!
You know what is REALLY funny? The fact that only one in five people are willing to call themselves a republican. What’s funnier? These right wing cowards and cunts think they still matter! LOL!
In a nutshell,
Conservatives enjoy self-deprecating humor, while liberals enjoy self-defecating humor.
The former is a high brow, sophisticaed type humor that is very funny to those that “get it”. The latter is usually low brow, simple-minded and reserved for adolescents that have matured physically, but not mentally, while seemingly high-centered in the ‘anal stage’ of freudian childhood development theory.
@60: In a nutshell:
Rick D. is too stupid to get the truth or the facts straight – so no wonder cretins like Rick can’t understand sophisticated humor.
What is funny is that Little Ricky thinks he is smart -that alone is worth a few laughs.
Ricky doesn’t even realize what a total fool he makes of himself. Oblivious to his own ignorance, little Ricky D. continues to pontificate in a vaccuum.
You are right little Ricky d. – you are funny, and you don’t even know it.
Little ricky D. says:
This just proves that you don’t get sophisticated humor.
Tell us what you think is “sophisticated” conservative humor little ricky D.? You have offered no counter examples (of course, that is on par with your usual inability to formulate a cogent argument).
Don Ward says:
The only problem Don is that you failed to actually READ the post.
So you entire argument is not supported by waht the study actually said. You are just as stupid as the conservative idiots yo are trying to bolster here. You can’t even read the study but you feel free to invent your own “research” or add your own opinions that are directly contradicted by the actual data.
Thanks for the laugh. And thanks for trying to insult Lee, who actually pointed out how pathetically ignorant you are.
Also, thanks for demonstrating your supposed “intelligence”. I am so glad you can pick out typos – because you sure can’t reason logically or understand factual arguments.
oops: Wrong second quote:
This is what Lee actually quoted and you could not understand. What don’t you get about this research result? Can you not read or do yuou just choose to ignore the facts?
Either way, your insipid criticism of Lee looks pretty shallow, since all he did was accurately point out that you missed the entire point of the research.
Hey Rickie Dumbass
I repeat my challenge to you. Lets see how funny it is for you to be waterboarded. $300 for only 5 minutes. Think you are man enough?
http://horsesass.org/?p=15350&.....ent-914023
Incorrectyetinfantile @ 61-63
Thanks for proving the point I made at 60 ,troll. Hate-filled liberals like you make this thread by Goldy even more bizaare as you’re more of the rule than the exception as it relates to liberals being humorless intellectual infants in adult bodies.
@64~ I’ve learned from dealing with Lee Roseburg that liberals welch on bets they lose….so, sorry troll, no sale!
Besides, I’d hate to drain your entire life savings even if you did pay up, which is unlikely.
Exactly the image of lee I have. Talks tough when he can hide behind a computer. Mamaa’s boy (lee, thehim) challenged me to a fight when I first started posting here. Of course he knew I lived out of the state so he would never be forced to back up his threat.
Lee is not man enough to insult someone to their face. Hell, he’s even afraid of seattle jew and had to call the police for protection. What a pussy lee is.
Don Ward @ 53 Spews:
Followed by a link to this page, which contains this text:
Hm… Apparently Mr. Ward doesn’t understand the meaning of the “N = 332” parenthetical thought. Nor, for that matter, does Mr. Ward seem to understand the concept of an article abstract, or the fact that this article was published in The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 212-231 (2009).
Mr. Ward closes with:
To which I can only reply: using The Google(TM) is only the first step. Apparently Mr. Ward has forgotten that one has to actually follow the links and read the web pages that come up.
Well, I guess the Trolls have at least shown us that they are masters of the one-liner, if not the most satirically aware:
“Yet when I show up to DL, they act like the pussies which they are and hide in the corner.”
“Lee is not man enough to insult someone to their face.”
Hate-filled liberals like you make this thread by Goldy even more bizaare as you’re more of the rule than the exception as it relates to liberals being humorless intellectual infants in adult bodies.”
“In a nutshell,
Conservatives enjoy self-deprecating humor, while liberals enjoy self-defecating humor.”
Yeah…. You try defecating in a nutshell. It’s not as easy as you thinK!!!
“
@66: I am not hate-filled – I am just recognizing stupidity (you), when I see it.
You are not funny and not intelligent and the fact that you think you are, makes you even more ridiculous.
So thanks for the laughs. We are laughing at you not with you.
We don’t need to “fight” an idiot like Marvin – simply embarassing him by exposing the paucity of his ideas is sufficient.
Just in case Marvin, I have met Lee and I don’t think you want to mess with him.
And as far as Don Ward:
A lot of name calling from Ms. Ward, but very little to back what she says. As DJ (@68) points out, the article was legit, published and Don Ward was too dumb to follow the links and get the information before she shot off her fool mouth.
A real “woman” would apologize for the repeated errors that Don Ward made here…we are all wating for Don to apologize for misinterpreting the article, for not understanding Lee’s reply, for fabricating what was wrong with the article and for being to thick to look up the resources that verify the article.
That total about 4 fatal errors in logic and comprehension. It is not a record for a troll (Marvin and others have easily broken that) but is an impressive display of stupidity.
And we wonder why conservatives don’t understand sarcasm.
Sure you are. Apparently, you’re just not bright enough to recognize it.
Repub. Teabaggers Unite @ 65:
YOU CHEAP BASTARD!!!!!!!
Sean Hannity said on his TV show he’d be waterboarded for charity. For our military families no less.
Keith Obermann offered him $1,000 per SECOND, or $3.6 million per hour.
Since it’s not torture Sean can probably go 10-15 hours for the families of hour fallen soldiers.
I mean, geeez some of those guys gave up their lives.
That Hannnity he is a Great American, isn’t he?
@73 GBS:
See post @49. I welcome your comeback you little pussy.
Have you heard about hannity and his “freedom concerts,” where all the money that gets donated is given to the families of dead servicemen?
What does olbermann do for the troops?
p.s. I’m not anticipating an answer from you. It’s hard to defend olbermann.
This is freekin funny!!!
Those Darn Republican Torturers
Ten approved techniques:
– attention grasp(omg)
– walling (in which the suspect could be pushed into a wall)(This is a baddie)
– a facial hold(Oh No)
– a facial slap( That is a killer one)
– cramped confinement( So Scary)
– wall standing( in the corner you terrorist)
– week-long sleep deprivation source
– insects placed in a confinement box (the suspect had a fear of insects)crap me too!
– waterboard – “the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet. The individual’s feet are generally elevated. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes. Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner……..produces the perception of ’suffocation and incipient panic’.”(This is the clencher)I can’t do this even though i killed 3500 Americans)I am afraid to die in the name of alla!)
Having searched the thread first, I’m surprised no one has mentioned the satire of Limbaugh and O’Reilly.
That’s the odd thing to me: So many (though clearly not everyone) are able to ID Colbert as doing satire, but nobody IDs Limbaugh and O’Reilly as doing the same — even though they’ve effectively been doing the same act for years.
For Rush’s sake, I’m just glad the DNC checks to him clear the bank. He’s done a workmanlike job of making Republicans look cartoonish. And, hey, since Rush was syndicated nationally in 1988, the Republicans have won only two Presidential elections. He’s been a fine investment by the DNC.