Article published in:
Metapragmatics of Humor: Current research trends
Edited by Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 14] 2016
► pp. 177–189

Truthiness and consequences

A cognitive pragmatic analysis of Stephen Colbert’s satirical strategies and effects

| Department of Communication, University of Memphis
Using a discourse perspective on the production and reception of satire, this paper comparatively examines the different satirical goals and audiences of Stephen Colbert’s ironic satire on The Colbert Report (TCR) and at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). While some research suggests at least some viewers of TCR did not perceive it to be ironic satire, Colbert’s WHCD speech successfully and unambiguously achieved its satirical goals. The analysis shows that one possible explanation for the success of the speech, as opposed to the ambiguity of The Colbert Report, is that the speech’s structure facilitated both the immediate audience’s and potential mediated referee’s cognitive processing of satirical communication as described in Simpson’s (2003) discourse model of satire.
Keywords: discourse analysis, humor, irony, pragmatics, satire, Stephen Colbert
Published online: 24 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.14.09ste
References

References

Anderson, James, and Amie D. Kincaid
2013 “Media Subservience and Satirical Subservience: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, the Propaganda Model and the Paradox of Parody.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 30: 171–188. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Jody C., and Jonathan S. Morris
2008 “One ‘Nation,’ Under Stephen? The Effects of The Colbert Report on American Youth.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 52: 622–43. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baym, Geoffrey
2009 “Stephen Colbert’s Parody of the Postmodern.” In Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-network Era, ed. By Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson, 124–144. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Bell, Alan
1991 The Language of News Media, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Booth, Wayne C.
1974 A Rhetoric of Irony, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Colbert, Stephen
2009 ‘Colbert Roasts President Bush-2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner’, April 29 2006, http://​www​.youtube​.com​/watch​?v​=U7FTF4Oz4dI. Accessed 19 December 2012.
Colebrook, Claire
2004 Irony. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Colletta, Lisa
2009 “Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.” Journal of Popular Culture 42: 856–874. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr., and Christin D. Izett
2005 “Irony as Persuasive Communication.” In Figurative Language Comprehension: Social and Cultural Influences, ed. by Herbert L. Colston and Albert N. Katz, 131–151. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gray, Jonathan, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thomspon
2009 “The State of Satire, the Satire of State.” In Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-network Era, ed. by Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, & Ethan Thompson, 3–36. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Gring-Pemble, Lisa, and Martha S. Watson
2003 “The Rhetorical Limits of Satire: An Analysis of James Finn Garner’s Politically Correct Bedtime Stories .” Quarterly Journal of Speech 89: 132–153. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
James, William C.
2008 “ Borat and Anti-Semitism.” Journal of Religion and Film 12. http://​www​.unomaha​.edu​/jrf​/vol12no1​/Borat​.htm. Accessed 22 May 2012.
Johnson, Ann, Esteban del Rio and Alicia Kemmitt
2010 “Missing the Joke: A Reception Analysis of Satirical Texts.” Communication, Culture & Critique 3: 396–415. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Jeffrey P.
2009 “Believable Fictions: Redactional Culture and the Will to Truthiness.” In The Changing Faces of Journalism: Tabloidization, Technology and Truthiness, ed. by Barbie Zelizer, 127–143. New York: Routledge 2009.Google Scholar
2010 Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Kaufer, David
1977 “Irony and Rhetorical Strategy.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 10: 90–110.Google Scholar
Kreuz, Roger J., and Richard M. Roberts
1993 “On Satire and Parody: The Importance of Being Ironic.” Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 8: 97–109. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
LaMarre, Heather L., Kristen D. Landreville, and Michael A. Beam
2009 “The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report .” International Journal of Press/Politics 14: 212–231. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
LaMarre, Heather L., Kristen D. Landreville, Dannagal Young, and Nathan Gilkerson
2014 “Humor Works in Funny Ways: Examining Satirical Tone as a Key Determinant in Political Humor Message Processing.” Mass Communication and Society 17: 400–423. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mohammed, Shaheed Nick
2014 “’It-Getting’ in the Colbert Nation Online Forum.” Mass Communication and Society 17: 173–194. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, Kerry L., and Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.
1997 “Authorial Intentions in Understanding Satirical Texts.” Poetics 25: 45–70. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, Paul
2003 On the Discourse of Satire: Toward a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Craig O.
2013 “Strategies of Verbal Irony in Visual Satire: Reading The New Yorker’s ‘Politics of Fear’ Cover.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 26: 197–217. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Todorov, Alexander, Shelly Chaiken, & Marlone D. Henderson
2002 “The Heuristic-Systematic Model of Social Information Processing.” In The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice, ed. by James Price Dillard & Michael Pfau, 195–211. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Verschueren, Jef
2000 “Notes on the Role of Metapragmatic Awareness in Language Use.” Pragmatics 10: 439–456. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre & Dan Sperber
1992 “On Verbal Irony.” Lingua 87: 53–76. CrossrefGoogle Scholar