Stephen Colbert, the most popular fake conservative since Michael Bloomberg, has been named to host The Late Show. Interestingly, he was in the headlines just acouple weeks ago for angering the Asian community with anoffensive Tweet.
While others might be stoned in the virtual public square for making politicallyincorrect statements or Tweeting out a slur, Colbert was sentenced to five years behind DavidLetterman’s desk.
The tweet in question read:
I am willingto show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-ChongDing-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.
Colbert is a liberal. He so liberal that Letterman will now be remembered as the conservative host of The Late Show. So the Comedy Central star gets away with his insensitivity.
Whenthe Twitter scandal erupted, Colbert claimed that he was not in charge of hissocial media, that a staffer put it out, and it was an out ofcontext quote from his show. It quickly went away.
But if you look at the clipyou’ll see that the remark is probably just as bad in context. It’s reminiscent of Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshiin Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The reason his portrayal has been largely ignored is because Colbert ismaking fun of the racism Conservatives are alleged to harbor. He plays a character who is supposed to be ignorant andinsensitive, like Kenny Powers or Denny Crane, but the humor of the bit doesn’t come from hisignorance; it comes from his cartoonish portrayal of an Asian man.
It’s good to be a liberal. Liberal bigotry is acceptable. You can say the N-Word,the C-word the Q-word, or anything else from the vast alphabet of slurs, especially if you’re talkingabout conservatives. Liberals are rarely boycotted, or petitioned, and quite often, they get to keep moving up the career ladder.
Keith Olbermann was rehired by ESPN (after bombing out on MSNBCand Current TV) even though he once referred to a black football player as“Chicken and Waffles.” Yet Rush Limbaugh was only a couple weeks intohis stint at the same network, when his speculation that the sportsmedia were overly obsessed with a black quarterback was grounds for hisdismissal.
I think the reason why conservative comedyseems so unfunny, is because it’s stifled by the Speech Stasi. If you’re in favorof gay marriage, you’re allowed to make jokes about antiques andBroadway shows. If you voted for Obama, you get to joke about him beinggood at basketball. Want to do a blonde joke? Make it about Sarah Palin. But if you’re conservative, you can only talk about how dumb white men are. Hence, conservative comedy seems to have as much edge as Hee-Haw.
It’s long been speculated that speech codes were written to stop criticism of the Left. And as far as comedy, it certainly has.