In “The Irony of Satire,” an Ohio State University study, it was found that conservatives, when polled, took Stephen Colbert seriously. This, along with Barry Blitt’s famous New Yorker cover, begs the question, “Who is this thing we do really for? Anyway?”
Irony is a literary device going back at least to Cervantes. Caricature goes back to ancient Egypt. Not to be aware of the quiet wink of satire is to be untouched by Swift, Twain, Waugh, Moliere, Perlman, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Marx Brothers, Bob and Ray, Terry Southern, etc, etc, etc. So here are people unreachable by clever. Millions of them.
Conservatism is not stupidity. They number some of the great intellectuals of history. Today many brainy conservatives in business and media make out very well by their philosophy. I’m speaking of the others. The masses of Palin-eolithics who vote for a fear-based agenda even if it hurts them. It seems they are affected by a belief system that doesn’t allow for irony. We all have belief systems but what is it about satire that doesn’t violate the belief system of the left that, to the right, bounces like a hammer off a very hard rock?
