2015
DOI: 10.1177/1748048514568763
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Stephen Colbert: Great satirist, or greatest satirist ever?

Abstract: This essay offers an assessment of Colbert's satire that situates his practice within the larger theory and history of the genre. My assertion is that satire problematizes notions of certainty, stable reality, and absolute truth. As such, satire enacts a postmodern agenda of freeplay and undecidability. However, many current media critics operate with a modernist view of the genre and of Colbert in particular. Such an approach to satire is inadequate and misconstrues the significance of the form as well as Col… Show more

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Cited by 7 publications
(5 citation statements)
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“…deplorable’ (p. 264), including acts like voting. Such nihilist orientations seem hard to find in news satire audience research, as well as in textual studies of contemporary news satire (Combe, 2015; Ödmark, 2018). While isolated utterances could be understood as nihilist, they are a part of a complex weaving of critical, emotional and ironic argumentation.…”
Section: The Civic In News Satire Engagementmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…deplorable’ (p. 264), including acts like voting. Such nihilist orientations seem hard to find in news satire audience research, as well as in textual studies of contemporary news satire (Combe, 2015; Ödmark, 2018). While isolated utterances could be understood as nihilist, they are a part of a complex weaving of critical, emotional and ironic argumentation.…”
Section: The Civic In News Satire Engagementmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the journalistic claim to epistemic authority is still robust in Sweden. Tendencies to question it have increased, but seem to relate to a general questioning of the very nature of objectivity, neutrality, civility and taste (Baym, 2013; Combe, 2015). That in turn relates to larger shifts from modern-era normative dichotomization between rational/emotional and information/entertainment (Coleman, 2013a; Dahlgren, 2009; Jones, 2013a, 2013b), also found in scholarly political entertainment research methodologies, resulting in a division between effects research and mostly qualitative, cultural and contextualizing approaches.…”
Section: Theoretical Trajectories and Previous Researchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…While Freja, mentioned above, is neutral in her construction of news, participants like Tim are critical. As theorized by, among others, Combe (2015), news satire questions the very notion of ‘truth’, at least in the senses claimed by political elites and journalists. This has given rise to the concept of ‘truthiness’, coined by the retired satirical host character on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 2005–14).…”
Section: Genre Work and Satirical Transgressionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Such critical constructions of knowledge claims are in contrast to the exclusion based on knowledge, mentioned above. Coupled with these kinds of critical constructions is a kind of ‘media savvy’ that includes a basic understanding of media production and logic, which is an important aspect of political comedy engagement, illustrating the ‘serious’ value of irony (Combe, 2015; Jones, 2010).…”
Section: Themes Of Community Constructionmentioning
confidence: 99%