Recently, Stephen Colbert was lambasted for a joke he made about Asians during his show, The Colbert Report.
The “Ching Chong Ding Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever” was later tweeted out to the universe by someone claiming to be Colbert. And people weren’t laughing at his hurtful words.
But therein lay the problem. Or the multitude of problems.
First, have you ever walked in on the punchline of a joke? It doesn’t make sense. You may not even know that a joke was made and misconstrue it as an actual statement.
That’s what tweeting an editorial punchline does. It takes one statement out of context and ignores its original purpose. So why bother? It’s no longer funny or clever.
Second, is Stephen Colbert responsible for the misuse of his television material? Most of us have at some point made a Freudian slip and said something unintentionally rude or sexual in nature.
We’re forgiven because of the lack of intent. And if someone tried to use it against us, others would defend us.
Colbert plays an ultra-conservative idiot on his show in order to make a point – that most offensive, racist, radical idiots are just ill-informed.
His intent is not to hurt but to invoke conversation and change. So when someone takes his words and uses them as a sword to inflict damage, it’s like blaming Sears for a belt that is used as a whip.
Third, The Colbert Report is a satire. It creates humour while casting light on very unfunny realities for the purpose of discussion and change.
Some topics are just too emotionally charged to discuss in an open and frank manner.
Heightened emotions cause people to stop listening to the other side of the issue. Colbert also believes that despite their actions, most people are inherently good.
So he takes those sensitive subjects and expresses the idiot’s point of view in its extreme, allowing us to stop approaching it from opposite directions and find common ground … against him.
Satire works because it’s easier to change people’s minds if they’re not put on the defensive. And they’re less defensive of their point of view if they’re able to laugh about it.
But in a time when most can’t spell and their thoughts don’t stretch beyond 140 Twitter characters and emoticons, satire may be a little too high-brow for some. They not only don’t expect it, they don’t get it.
So for those who missed Colbert’s actual commentary, here it is in a nutshell. Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, is making amends to Native Americans for his team’s politically incorrect name by starting a foundation with the same politically incorrect name. Colbert offered to do the same for Asians.
Some say they got the joke. It just went too far.
It did. Beyond the controlled boundary of the show and right into a lawless Twitter-land.
The satire worked. It was the tweet that failed.
