Parody is Priceless

Parody. When you hear the word "parody," a variety of ideas and concepts come into play. 

There are film parodies, like Epic Movie and Vampires Suck, which capitalize on making fun of teen movies by adapting those exact same genres and portraying them for the sad excuses for films that they appear to be. Other examples include Austin Powers, a parody of James Bond films, or Scream, a parody of teen horror films.

There's Saturday Night Live, which thrives on parody as they poke fun at politicians, actors, and in-the-headlines folk on a week-to-week basis.

We can't forget Weird Al, the parody-er of music. (Who else jammed out to "Riding Nerdy" in middle school? I can't be the only one.)

But one aspect of parody — the rhetorical aspect — is something consistently prevalent, but also very overlooked. For this, I speak particularly of Stephen Colbert, and the Colbert Report.

http://cdn06.film.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Stephen-Colbert6.jpg

For those who have never seen the Colbert Report, it airs on Comedy Central stars Stephen Colbert as a news anchor figure, who for half-an-hour discusses the trials and tribulations of politics today, attempting to give advice to our political figures, and standing up to the injustices placed on American citizens today.

Also, it's hilarious.

It's supposed to be.

See, the Stephen Colbert that exists in real life is not the same Stephen Colbert that speaks to millions of viewers every night, Monday through Friday. When he's on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert is in fact The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Mos Def Colbert, D.F.A., a self-described "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot" and a "self-important right-wing commentator," and it's all a ruse. He's being an over-the-top, utterly conservative, right-wing excuse of a political commentator — all the while, secretly acting as a satirical political humorist.

It's the most wonderful of all examples of rhetoric.

If the main point of rhetoric is to use language, diction, gestures, and voice (all the aspects of logos, pathos, and ethos) to persuade a group of people to feel a certain way, then Colbert should go down in the books as a rhetor of the ages.

Colbert is using the personality of right-wing political commentators such as Bill O'Reilly to his own advantage, and flipping it on its back. He is harboring the opposing side from within and destroying it from the inside out. Colbert uses this form of satire to cause the audience to laugh at him and his outrageous gestures, his outlandish remarks — so that the next time we see Bill O'Reilly on his Fox News show, we subconsciously draw comparisons from him to the act that Stephen Colbert is putting on, and the memory of the parody causes us to laugh at the reality of the genuine.

It's brilliant. The Colbert Report has been one of my favorite political talk shows for years, and I didn't even catch it as a form of rhetoric until today.

Kudos, Colbert. You're catching the right-wing off-guard, and doing the left-wing a favor, simultaneously. Kudos.

(For a bit of fun, check out Stephen Colbert, in character, as a guest on Bill O'Reilly's show. Let the fun commence.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QquTUR9nbC4