A great Digby post explains why wingnuts don't get Colbert: brain damage.

[milkyway]

Digby's post is a discussion of one the of the right's most potent tactics: the cartoonizing of Dems. Within it is this bit of information:

An investigation by Simone Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues shows that the ability to understand sarcasm depends on a carefully orchestrated sequence of complex cognitive skills in specific parts of the brain.

Dr Shamay-Tsoory, a psychologist at the Rambam Medical Centre in Haifa and the University of Haifa, said: "Sarcasm is related to our ability to understand other people's mental state. It's not just a linguistic form, it's also related to social cognition."

...

The study showed that people with damage in the prefrontal lobe struggled to pick out sarcasm. The others, including people with similar damage to other parts of the brain, were able to correctly place the sharp-tongued words into context.

...

Now, I would hesitate to say that the right does not understand irony and therefore, are brain damaged. That would be very rude. Still, you have to admit that this proves my point:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_digbysblog_archive.html#114875280553322120

This explains why the dimwit-in-chief was slow to realize Colbert was ridiculing him, and DeLay and his supporters thought Colbert was an actual news show http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/24/delay-colbert/

[annabanana]

1. Well that explains a lot!

Satire is just too complicated for them. It also explains why none of them are funny. It also explains that stupid duck comic..

[maxsolomon]

2. not just freepers.

there are plenty of people around DU who need this :sarcasm: or they jump down your throat.

the key is verisimilitude.

[SmokingJacket]

3. Well, to give some DUers credit...

some people are not so great at wielding sarcasm, either.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. This medium is dense

Unless you're already personally acquainted with someone, you really can't effectively employ a whole lot of wit, satire, irony, or anything even remotely subtle in any exchange. It's just too hard to relay it via this medium, since it's so much more than words.

Truthiness (verisimilitude) or not, there are far too many hidden and personal agendae here on DU - and everywhere else - for that sarcasm smilie ever not to be employed. Even then, such agendae won't stop the launches.

For instance, bring up the matter of Leopold and that bogus indictment story and the Pitt backup, and run the risk of the harpies going completely insane.

And that's a great example of truthiness, the falseness of that story.

So, I guess the key might be to know your audience, and, even then, dumbing it down won't work.

[applegrove]

6. And you were so ready to point out Truthout made the same mistake

as MSM does all the time! :sarcasm:

[maxsolomon]

9. i'd hope the 1000+ posts would be some kind of badge

'i HAVE to be kidding or i wouldn't be at 1000 posts', or something.

anyway, i use :sarcasm: religiously now.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. See, I don't even notice those numbers - maybe I should?

I just respond to the words.

But, smart move, keeping that smilie close at hand.

[maxsolomon]

11. well it sure helps spot the freepers

7 posts & being a jerk? that's a disruptor.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. But what if it's a newbie?

What about the benefit of the doubt?

Hey, it's only a message board.

[applegrove]

4. Why Ann Coulter does "put them down humour". Cause otherwise..

her audience would not laugh. Real satire would involved self-knowledge and that is the last thing the political machine of the GOP wants in their followers. They also need to move humour away from empathy..so tribalism will prevail.

Democracies do not work that way. But I think they know that. And that is the whole point.

In a democracy.. you don't get EVERYTHING YOU WANT.. you should get what you need. Everyone should.

[madmom]

7. I told my SO a long time age that sarcasm is the intelligent persons

humor. That leaves fundies out all together.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. I'd say sarcasm is second to satire, which is

slightly different.

Satire doesn't aim to hurt, as sarcasm does. People think the words are interchangeable, but they're not. A scintilla of difference in the definition and the intent, and it makes a great big difference.

Colbert never meant ot hurt anyone - his routine at the Correspondents' Dinner was a perfect example of satire.

Not that they got it, but, yeah, you have to be smart to get it.

You also have to know who Stephen Colbert is.

heh heh heh

[Lusted4]

8. They don't understand Franken either,so they do what comes natural

they HATE.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

14. Confusion = fear

A lot of people get defensive when they don't understand something and they hear (or sense) laughter. Immediately, they take it personally, and lash out.

That's human nature, and, boy, in this medium, it's hard not to avoid.

[calmblueocean]

15. Holy Hannah, that's a great post!

"George Bush is a slow-talking hillbilly from the old confederacy who is more racist than Strom Thurmond."

I laughed! Seriously, though, this is so true and so important:

We have tons of biting, dizzyingly precise take-down artists on our side. But none of these themes seem to capture the mainstream media as do the wingnut themes and I have concluded that it is because they are too sophisticated. Just like Goldberg and his frappucino sipping sycophants, we too entertain ourselves with this stuff. But unlike them, we only entertain ourselves. They entertain the press.

And the reason they entertain the press is because the press has been dumbed down in this country to an almost unbelievable degree. The Murrows and Cronkites have all been weeded out of the newsrooms, replaced with clones of Chris Matthews and Claire Shipman.

Coming up with a show that would entertain the right wing is a tall order. Honestly, instead of the Daily Show, we need a show more like a political Hee Haw! Except not even political. Just filled with fart jokes and puppets. The George Bush puppet would catch a farting disease on a trip overseas, and it would spread to the Cheney puppet and the Condoleeza puppet. In the end they would all fart and blow up the White House.

I just realized this sounds exactly like an episode of South Park.