The Ego has Landed: Stephen Colbert, Irony and Enthymeme at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

Author:

• Ryan Erik McGeough (Louisiana State University)

Abstract:

Despite consisting of primarily jokes Stephen Colbert had already used on his television program, The Colbert Report, Colbert's speech at the 2006 WHCA Dinner left audience members shocked and uncomfortable. Colbert defies traditional understandings of irony, engaging in what I label performative irony, and utilizes irony's critical edge, yet remains within a comic frame of acceptance. Colbert's speech highlights the ways in which irony functions as enthymeme. Colbert also provides insight into how repetition can lessen irony's enthymematic function- reducing the risk of misinterpretation, but at the expense of the protection irony traditionally affords.