A recent research paper by Heather L. LaMarre, Kristen D. Landreville, and Michael A. Bream of the Ohio State University finds that political ideology has a significant impact on how viewers perceive the content of The Colbert Report. In 'The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in the Colbert Report' , published in The International Journal of Press/Politics, the authors are able to demonstrate in their survey sample that self-identified political conservatives are more likely to believe that:
Colbert uses humour but truly means what he says about liberals
Colbert really is a conservative
Colbert is a Republican
Colbert really dislikes liberals and only pretends to be joking
At the same time, they found that both self-identified liberals and conservatives 'find Colbert equally funny suggesting that both sides see the humor yet differ in their perceptions of what or who is being parodied and/or satirized in the late-night comedy show' (LaMarre et al, 2009: 225).
For me, what these findings suggest--in part--is that the politicized content of popular culture is often interpreted in ways that challenge the probable intentions of cultural producers. Thus, it's not just getting your message across that is important; you also may need to be managing how that message is received. At the same time, as The Colbert Report demonstrates, great commercial success can be garnered by adopting modes of presentation--like deadpan satire--that allow several sub-audiences to believe that they are in on the real joke.
Then again, it could just be that conservatives--in the, uhmm sample--lack the cognitive capacities to process complex messages...
