Elizabeth Benacka is an assistant professor of communications at Lake Forest College. Her book “Citizen Colbert: Humor’s Function in the Public Sphere” is scheduled for publication this month.
Q. What is your book about?
A. I just trace how satire, parody and irony were discussed in classical Greece and Rome, note how it had specific civic and democratic functions and trace it through Stephen Colbert’s use and argue that he is also using (humor) in civic engagement.
Q. Where did the idea for this book come from?
A. It began with my dissertation a year after September 11. I discovered how classical rhetoric has dealt with humor to make an argument in a public sphere. Then I pulled in the public appearances Stephen Colbert did on the “Colbert Report” and pulled those in.
Q. What public appearances?
A. In 2006, when he did the White House Correspondents Dinner in character. I presented a conference paper about that particular routine. There was also the Colbert Super PAC and his testimony in front of Congress.
Q. How would you describe Colbert’s character at these public events?
A. A poorly informed, highly confident idiot.
Q. What would you like readers to take away from your book?
A. I’d like there to be a better estimate of how humor contributes to democratic discourse.
Q. Is there a difference in humor between liberals and conservatives?
A. Most satire comes from the liberal perspective. When you think of conservative humor, its more one-liner jokes instead of the ambiguity that satire, parody and irony produce.
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Q. Why the difference?
A. I’m not really sure. It’s a preference, like an aesthetic preference, in style of humor. It’s not about intellectual capacity.
Q. Have you found humor in the recent presidential campaign?
A. Oh yeah. I think (TV comedians) Samantha Bee and John Oliver. I do think Donald Trump used his own brand of humor. He was a kind of insult comic like Don Rickles. My book’s conclusion discusses it.
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