Late night television comedy, mid-afternoon congressional testimony: Attacks on Stephen Colbert’s House Judiciary committee appearance

Colbert’s breaking of character—a rare inconsistency—received less attention than the consistency of his characterised testimony.

Josh Compton

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623439

This analysis examines criticism of Stephen Colbert’s congressional testimony on farm labour issues in September 2010 to better understand accusations of offensiveness and appropriateness. A nuanced look at this unprecedented version of performed Congressional testimony expands our understanding of the increasingly complicated relationship of politics and late-night television humour, and it also sketches out parameters for standards of acceptability in political discourse and political humour. Implications on the co-mingling of political humour and political attacks are considered.

Compton, J. (2019). Late night television comedy, mid-afternoon congressional testimony: Attacks on Stephen Colbert’s House Judiciary committee appearance. Comedy Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623439