Fallacies: Stephen Colbert's Opening Monologue

Fallacies: Stephen Colbert's opening monologue on the May 16th Colbert Report Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report is a useful television program to analyze for logical fallacies because it is a deliberate parody of the types of fallacies often used in opinionated news media, specifically Fox News reports. In the May 16, 2011 Colbert Report, Colbert is shown mocking several former contenders for the Republican nomination for 2011. Colbert's primary methods of attack are hyperbole and ad hominem attacks, inter-dispersed with some false causal arguments and false analogies.

What is particularly amusing about Colbert's program is that not only does he deliberately use fallacies, but many of the subjects in his news clips unintentionally use fallacies.

For example Colbert pokes fun at conservative talk show host Mike Huckabee's statement that Huckabee will not run for president, beginning with Huckabee's proclamation 'all the factors say go but my heart says no.' Huckabee is shown essentially creating a straw man argument, where he is portrayed valiantly resisting the (vague and unnamed) advocates of his campaign so he can spend more time with his family (and his highly lucrative talk show).

This, Colbert dryly suggests is absurd, given the fact that Huckabee was doing decidedly non-Commander in Chief like things such as playing with his rock band and interviewing pop celebrities on his television show. Colbert's argument is an ad hominem attack, suggesting because Huckabee interviews George Lopez on his show he is not a serious contender for the Republican nomination.

Colbert then engages in a deliberately false causal argument of his own, claiming "I made Mike Huckabee (admittedly kind of a rush job)." Colbert argues that because he advocated Huckabee's candidacy on his television show, Huckabee was launched to national prominence and briefly became a serious candidate for president. Of course, Huckabee, before getting his own Fox News program, had a long-standing career in politics, including being a governor, and his fundamentalist message was popular amongst a (narrow) segment of the conservative, Republican electorate.

Colbert hyperbolically draws a connection between his first mention of Huckabee on the Colbert Report and Huckabee's popularity, thus bolstering Colbert's own reputation as a 'king-maker.' Colbert also deliberately draws another false correlation between being put on the official Colbert 'bad' or 'on notice' list as Huckabee fell out of favor in his eyes. Also on the Colbert 'on notice' list are Jane Fonda and synthetic sugar drink flavor crystals.

Because neither Jane Fonda nor flavored sugar crystals have been elected president and they are also on the 'on notice' list, says Colbert, Mike Huckabee will also never be a serious contender for the presidency again. This is a false causal connection and also hyperbolically overstates Colbert's influence in getting politicians elected. Next, Colbert skewers Donald Trump.

In his role as a conservative newscaster, Colbert begins with feigned outrage that Trump is not running "Who is going to tell OPEC the fun is over?" he cries when Trump is shown making his announcement that he is not running for the presidency. Colbert mocks Trump's hyperbolic self-promotion with his own hyperbole. Additionally, this is another example of how Colbert's deliberate, humorous false analogies reveal the sloppy thinking and fallacies of his subjects of ridicule.

Trump had recently created a smokescreen or 'red herring' issue by crying out for President Obama's birth certificate, a non-issue except amongst members of the extreme right.

Then, Colbert shows a clip of former Reagan screenwriter Peggy Noonan endorsing Newt Gingrich as a 'new voice for a new generation.' Colbert states that Noonan is last generation's news herself, noting that young people, watching her speak, are probably wondering: "Who is that lady and why is she giving elocution lessons on a yacht?" This is a circumstantial ad hominem, arguing that merely because Gingrich is endorsed by Noonan he is not a viable candidate and a has-been.

It is also an ad hominem attack against Noonan, arguing that because she seems pretentious and preppy in her diction and is associated with writing for older politicians, such as George Herbert Walker Bush and Ronald Reagan, she has little of value to say about the upcoming Republican election. Gingrich's apparent references to his ability to engage in effective fundraising by name-dropping corporations like IBM are also satirized, using hyperbole, by Colbert, suggesting that Newt should market his candidacy.