Stephen Colbert Mathematically Proved To Influence American Politics
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Democratic politicians appearing on the comedy teevee show The Colbert Report got an average 40 percent bump in contributions in the month following their visit, while Republican politicians got an average of nothing. This just goes to prove that Republicans do not watch The Colbert Report, or if they do, they end up contributing to Democratic politicians. Read a PDF of the research report here. [American Political Science Association]
Democratic politicians appearing on the comedy teevee show The Colbert Report got an average 40 percent bump in contributions in the month following their visit, while Republican politicians got an average of nothing. This just goes to prove that Republicans do not watch The Colbert Report, or if they do, they end up contributing to Democratic politicians. Read a PDF of the research report here. [American Political Science Association]









Now we bring you some news from beyond the Beltway. Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, the fitness fanatic and likely 2008 presidential candidate, is in a spat right now with the Arkansas Times. And things have gotten ugly.
The Colbert Report tests the boundaries of just how long one can stand arch irony. Or maybe I mean satire and “arch” is just what Stephen Colbert’s eyebrow does the entire show. In any case, the Colbert Report’s shtick will be familiar to any Daily Show viewer — Colbert’s fatuous, arrogant character deadpans nonsense and near nonsense in the exact low tones of our most trusted (or, uhm, at least highest-rated) news anchors. His showy “gravitas” (as Colbert congratulates himself) targets loofah-lover Bill O’Reilly most explicitly, right down to the bullet-pointed commentary on his opening spiel against “the word police.” (On the screen: “Head bad, heart good.”) This first show was probably long-planned so we won’t hold its relative lack of currency against it, especially since rants against elitism are pretty much evergreen. Just plug in the President’s latest decision: “If you THINK about Harriet Miers, of course her nomination is absurd. But the president didn’t think about her nomination — ‘I know her heart’ — notice how he didn’t mention her brain.”