Stephen Colbert wears his religion in his punch lines

[cbayer]

Last edited Sun Sep 9, 2012, 12:51 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-stephen-colbert-critics-notebook-20120909,0,2902528.story
The host of 'The Colbert Report,' a devout Catholic, is the rare comedian who is comfortable joking about faith, religion and morality.


Stephen Colbert and Cardinal Timothy Dolan attend the TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2012, in New York City. (Kevin Mazur / WireImage / Getty Images)


By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic
September 9, 2012, 7:00 a.m.

-snip-

At a time when the term "God-given," as used in the Democratic platform, caused enough controversy that it was removed and then reinstated, it's the one place on television where liberal Christianity is given a place at the table. The Passion of the Colbert. No one in popular culture talks about religion the way he does.

According to the old saw, polite people do not publicly discuss sex, money, politics or religion. Which is why comedians, our socially appointed purveyors of necessary rudeness, spend so much time talking about sex, money, politics and religion.

In these days of partisan rage and general raunch, it's easy for comedians to talk about the first three. Religion is trickier — through some quirk in our cultural evolution, one's thoughts about a Supreme Being and the nature of worship have become more closely guarded than our habits in the bedroom. There has been no Kinsey report on religion.

-snip-

But for all the adulation Colbert and his team have received for their seven-year run of grade-A political satire, the most consistently revelatory aspect of the show is its theology.

more at link

[Th1onein]

1. There is no link

eom

[cbayer]

2. Sorry about that - fixed.

[dimbear]

3. There is no Kinsey report on religion.

For the kiddies in the audience, let me note that was a remarkably popular and yet rather pedantic expose of US sexual mores back in the stone age, er, 1950s IIRC.

There are similar scholarly exposes of religion, showing its uses and misuse, showing how it grows and reproduces, showing its excesses and triumphs, but they have never achieved any popularity among the general public. The general public does not want to know the facts about religion. No oomph.

People enjoy being fooled. That's why there are magicians.