Would the Colbert Report work today?

[Shiloh]

With Lindsay Ellis' most recent video expressing the opinion that Borat works a little too well with the current political climate, it's got me thinking about The Colbert Report.

Which lead me down a path of watching clips of the repor', and lead to this clip of Tucker Carlson basically turning into his character


So my question is, are we beyond parody at this point?

 

[CitizenVectron]

It would still work, but it was born and made for the Bush era, which is why it succeeded so well, then.

 

[Lord Fanny]

I mean, I think it would still work yes. He brought that character back for Trump before he won in 2016 and it was still great. But I don't know if it'd land exactly the same way, though, considering where we're at.

 

[Virtua Saturn]

I lived and breathed The Colbert Report but no. No matter what Colbert would do to emulate and add some extra crazy, Fox News would go a step further and be serious about it.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Didn't we just have this thread like yesterday?

But honestly, I don't know. I'm not sure Stephen would be able to keep up the bit all through Trump's era without breaking down. Maybe for like a year or two, but not the whole four.

 

[Parthenios]

Maybe? He's a very Bush era character. A modern one would be a conspiracy theorist, but what could he say that would be more absurd than what these types actually believe?

 

[Shiloh]

Didn't we just have this thread like yesterday?

But honestly, I don't know. I'm not sure Stephen would be able to keep up the bit all through Trump's era without breaking down. Maybe for like a year or two, but not the whole four.

Click to shrink...

If we did, I'm sorry, and lock this one up

 

[divisionbyzorro]

No, it doesn't work.

"Truthiness" became a mantra for the modern Republican party. It's not a joke anymore - it's reality.

 

[TeenageFBI]

I don't think it's possible to satirically out-crazy the right at this point.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

If we did, I'm sorry, and lock this one up

Click to shrink...

I checked, and the other thread's not quite the same - the other thread was about Colbert or Jon, and whether we wanted one or the other one to keep going instead of stopping.

 

[el jacko]

I don't think it's possible to satirically out-crazy the right at this point.

Click to shrink...

You can't make a political joke out of his show without going full-on crazy nonsense at this point. The new Animaniacs show actually does this - they have a Tucker Carlson segment which doesn't make fun of Fox News's political stances, only antes up the nonsense factor to be completely silly. It works by neutralizing any possible message these shows could have.

 

[Oleander]

I was thinking about this recently, and I think it wouldn't work any more, simply because it's Too Real now. The kind of reporting that Colbert was lampooning is mainstream amongst the right wing.

 

[Shiloh]

You can't make a political joke out of his show without going full-on crazy nonsense at this point. The new Animaniacs show actually does this - they have a Tucker Carlson segment which doesn't make fun of Fox News's political stances, only antes up the nonsense factor to be completely silly. It works by neutralizing any possible message these shows could have.

Click to shrink...

Exactly, the Animaniacs reboot tiptoes around it, but is still has people saying "too political".

 

[transience]

I think about truthiness at least once a week and how it's gone from comedy to reality.

 

[Kthulhu]

In a way it didn't work when it came out. A lot of people didn't realize it was satirical.

 

[viskod]

Some conservatives actually believed the Colbert Report was real at the time. I have no doubt that if you did a Trump version of it instead of the O'Reilly parody droves of people would take it as sincere.

 

[Shiloh]

Some conservatives actually believed the Colbert Report was real at the time. I have no doubt that if you did a Trump version of it instead of the O'Reilly parody droves of people would take it as sincere.

Click to shrink...

Not the highest bar since those same people think 'King of the Hill' is a show about conservative values.

 

[Berordn]

Some conservatives actually believed the Colbert Report was real at the time. I have no doubt that if you did a Trump version of it instead of the O'Reilly parody droves of people would take it as sincere.

Click to shrink...

i'm not sure if there were that many who believed it was real, it was pretty public knowledge that the repor' was a character, but many of them did see it as speaking truth to power for sure.

satire paradox and all that

 

[Deleted member 28523]

they tried https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Opposition_with_Jordan_Klepper

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

Colbert the character was about highlighting what conservatives were turning into. Now they are that.

Today it'd need to be more meta, about conservatism as a grift. Maybe be about the production of a Hannity or Carlson.

 

[Transistor]

We had a very similar thread recently. let's continue the conversation there:

Would You Rather Stephen Colbert Had Continued The Colbert Report Or Do You Rather The Late Show With Stephen Colbert?

I wonder how The Colbert Report would have been throughout the Trump administration. I personally would have found it hard to laugh at any Republican, fake or not. I think Stephen has been much more effective on Late Show.

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