Stephen Colbert and Philosophy: I Am Philosophy (And So Can You!)

by Aaron Allen Schiller (Editor)

Overview

At the head of The Colbert Report, one of the most popular shows on television, Stephen Colbert is a pop culture phenomenon. More than one million people backed his fake candidacy in the 2008 U.S. presidential election on Facebook, a testament to the particularly rich set of issues and emotions Colbert brings to mind. Stephen Colbert and Philosophy is crammed with thoughtful and amusing chapters, each written by a philosopher and all focused on Colbert's inimitable reality — from his word creations (truthiness, wikiality, freem, and others) to his position as a faux-pundit who openly mocks Fox News and CNN. Although most of the discussion is centered around The Colbert Report, this collection does not neglect either his best-selling book, I Am America (And So Can You!), or his public performances, including his incendiary 2006 White House Press Correspondents' Dinner speech.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812696615
Publisher:	Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/09/2009
Series:	Popular Culture and Philosophy , #41
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Philosophy for Heroes Aaron Allen Schiller xi

First Segment The Word: First Principles of Colbertian Philosophy 1

1 Colbert, Truthiness, and Thinking from the Gut David Kyle Johnson 3

2 Formidable Opponent and the Necessity of Moral Doubt Steven Gimbel 19

3 Things that Make You Go "What?" Roben Torosyan 29

4 Philosophy at Play Rachael Sotos 51

5 No Need for the Wordinistas at Webster's Jason Southworth 63

Second Segment The ThreatDown: Truthiness 75

6 Truth, Truthiness, and Bullshit for the American Voter Matthew F. Pierlott 77

7 Truthiness of the Appearances Ethan Mills 95

8 "The Word": Fearless Speech and the Politics of Language Michael Tiboris Kory Schaff 115

9 Philosophy in the Age of Truthiness David Detmer 131

Third Segment Better Know a Philosopher 143

10 Is Stephen Colbert America's Socrates? Mark Ralkowski 145

11 Why Is Stephen Colbert So Funny? Sophia Stone 163

12 Where Id Was, There Stephen Colbert Shall Be! Brad Frazier 179

13 Why Mr. Colbert Should Be President Nicolas Michaud 195

Final Segment What Colbert Tells Us about Being America 205

14 Colorblindness and Black Friends in Stephen Colbert's America Aaron Allen Schiller 207

15 The Wealth of Colbert Nations Kurt Smith 223

16 Freedom Isn't Free, but Freem Is Michael F. Patton, Jr. Samantha Webb 245

Take the Ishihara Race Test: See if You Are Colorblind Like Stephen! John Jacobson Jeffrey Gauthier 259

Citizens of the Colbert Nation 263

Factinista's Choice 269