What Is Political Satire?

Satire has the power to induce change by exaggerating issues within a historical context. If people see the satirical representation as being close enough to the reality of the situation, then this effect can be prove to be a catalyst for social and political change, at least in the ideologies of the readers of a satirical text. “Satire is a “mixed dish” that reflects any number of different balances of rhetorical argumentation and narrative storytelling” (Holbert et. al. 2013). By combining this rhetorical argumentation and situating it within a larger narrative, satire has the capability of reaching large audience, and the fact that it is such a loaded term which derives its characteristics from many different fields makes it more targeted
Who the audience members are precedes viewing motivations as well as the way in which the information is decoded. It might seem obvious to assume that only audiences leaning on the left of the political spectrum would tune in to the CR, but the truth is more complex than that since audiences don’t have to perform preferred readings of such texts and in a show such as the CR negotiated and oppositional readings work in a different dimension since so much of what is depicted on the show refers to conservative figure heads within the political landscape of the United States. Encoding takes place in two different dimensions. First it’s the building up of the news anchor (Colbert the character), and then the encoding of liberal schema through the clever editing and interweaving newscast snippets with the commentary provided by Colbert. Situating political satire within the context of comedy, one must understand why the depictions in CR are humorous. Hmielowski, Holbert and Lee write that “people want to laugh at the follies of politicians or opposing political parties. Laughing at the mistakes of others allows individuals to feel more secure with their own beliefs and removes insecurities they may have about their own behaviors or preferred political group” (2011, p. 101). This is applicable to CR as as much of the humour is derived from the characters speech and actions. By becoming a caricature of conservative political commentators, the character of Colbert becomes an opposing figure to the audience. The ridiculousness of what he says and does is analogous to the errors committed by politically conservative figures in all forms of media. The audience therefore becomes a united front against such a figure. The humour here is meant to reinforce the political beliefs of the viewers. The authors of the aforementioned article conclude that the audience is comprised of a mostly younger