THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Have to disagree here, respectfully, on objective and subjective grounds.

Subjectively, I love Colbert, but I didn’t laugh once watching his Congressional hearing. I think it was the audience effect, or lack of it--it felt to me like a great comedian bombing in front of a tough crowd.

Objectively, I don’t think this was the right thing for Congress to do. It’s already bad enough people don’t think Senators and Representatives actually do anything--as a former employee of a legislature, I can say for a fact that all but the laziest members work excruciating weeks with terrible commutes. But this just reinforces the stereotype of a do-nothing Congress (especially this Congress).

You may or may not have noticed that the public response here in the States was typically negative, even among liberals. The only thing that kept me from getting truly angry about this was the realization that yielding the floor to Colbert can’t be much worse than yielding it to any of the 535 other comedians in attendance.

I didn’t think that he was bombing with a tough crowd as much as his schtick became something closer to anti-comedy in that setting, similarly to his performance at the Bush Correspondent’s dinner. And I loved both.

On your second point, I find it hard to believe that people are really going to think Congress is doing LESS than they did previous, in all reality. There’s no marginal effect; perhaps it slaps another layer of cement on already iron-clad views (yes, cement on iron. The most secure lock, clearly), but who cares? As Tango and others say, it brought a lot of attention to the issue. And it’s not like Colbert didn’t have serious points along with his usual jokes.

@TCQ: That’s just the problem: I haven’t seen any coverage of the issues or serious points that Colbert addressed. All I’ve seen is coverage about the novelty of inviting Colbert. In short, I don’t think it brought any attention to “the issue.”

As for marginal effect, perception is generated through reproduction and salience.

J-Doug/3, here is an example:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/09/stephen-colbert-the-greatest-catholic-of-our-moment.html

J-Doug,

I watched the video on C-SPAN, just to see Colbert. I learned about illegal immigrants - not a ton, partially because I was not entirely unaware of the issue going in, but some. I can’t imagine I’m the only one.

You’re right to a degree though, of course, although I’d argue that that’s more a failing of the media for not pushing the discussion towards the issue than of Colbert.

Mike/4, that still plays more into J-Doug’s point than mine, though. I have no qualm with the linked piece, but it’s about Colbert, not migrant workers.