Reply #17: Apparently, yes [View All]

[jberryhill]

Chappelle's Show did appeal to racists, which is why he quit doing it, IIRC. The sophistication required to understand the frame of "this is how the media portrays African Americans" was beyond the grasp of those operating at a level of "hey, here's a black guy making fun of black people" - because on a very direct level, that's what it was.

There were right wingers who originally thought Colbert was intended to provide "balance" to Jon Stewart. Concrete thinkers have a tough time with parody and satire.

But parody can be "too subtle", at which point an increasing number of the audience are going to start to wonder whether it really is parody, or whether it is an attempt to sneak the overtly apparent message "under the radar" by saying - "oh, it's just parody".

Any parody or satire is not going to be appreciated by anyone to whom the point is too close to home, because of the negative emotional response to the subject of it.