That tweet has since been deleted, but #CancelColbert continued to trend and start a Twitter war of its own. On one side was Suey Park and her followers who claimed that the tweet was offensive and that Stephen Colbert was a horrible racist who should not be allowed on television. On the other side were countless Colbert Report fans who viciously attacked Park and her followers for not understanding satire. The whole mess even caught the attention from the mainstream media.
Yes, #CancelColbert was a big deal for about a week, as was Suey Park, but it looks like things have finally died down. Colbert was not cancelled, and the Twittersphere has moved onto other things.
In the end, the campaign to #CancelColbert didn't seem to amount to a whole lot. It got people talking for awhile, but that's about it. Still, it did make me realize a few things.
1. People on Twitter are Really, Really Racist
Okay, techncially this isn't something I just realized. Saying that people are racist is like saying that fire is hot or that water is wet. I'm not at all surprised that someone would read the above tweet and think "Hah! Stupid Chinese" and utter every racial slur they can throw at Asians. That happens all the time. What took me by surprise is how so-called socially progressive liberals immediately went on the attack when #CancelColbert started trending. Many of us would like to think that the most racist people in America are the conservatives on the far right who live in gated communities and wouldn't dare venture into "the ghetto" (read: predominantly black neighborhoods) for fear of getting mugged. Sadly, it looked like many of the people who took cheap shots at Suey Park's ethnicity considered themselves progressive liberals. They were the type who would proudly proclaim how racist they weren't by talking about their Asian friends. They would never openly make fun of Asians or anyone else who wasn't white, but it became really obvious that they had some pretty racist attitudes just beneath the surface. All it took was a racially-charged Twitter war to bring it out.
The fact that so many white liberals could be so racist probably shouldn't come as a surprise to me, but it does leave me really disappointed. These are the folks who should be above all of this racist crap. Sadly, they aren't. But that's okay. They aren't really racist. After all, some of their best friends are Asian.
*sigh*
2. People Don't Understand Satire
When I say that people don't understand satire, I'm not talking about Suey Park and her followers; I'm talking about everyone who went after Suey Park and her followers. They seem to think that satire is just "edgy" humor intended to be offensive, but they are totally off the mark. Satire is the use of humor or exaggeration to expose and criticize something negative in our society. It might make you laugh, but ultimately it's supposed to make you question and think about whatever is being satirized. Satire is Stephen Colbert's bread and butter, and the offending tweet was a quote from his show that was meant to make fun of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder and his attempts to be more culturally sensitive while using his team's offensive name. It was the punchline to a joke, and in context I didn't think it was anymore offensive than anything else on The Colbert Report.
What Stephen Colbert said on his show was satire; what was said on The Colbert Report's Twitter feed was not. It was disgustingly racist, no matter how many people decide to call it satire.
Then again, that's not Stephen Colbert's fault. He's not even the one who posted the tweet. It was someone else associated with his show, someone who doesn't understand satire or Twitter, which brings me to my last point...
3. Sometimes, Twitter Kind of Sucks
Don't get me wrong; I don't hate Twitter. I actually think it's great in theory. It gives people a chance to tell the world what's on their minds in 140 characters or less. It's the closest thing to unfiltered, off-the-cuff commentary on the Internet. Unfortunately, since Twitter comments are unfiltered and off-the-cuff, people don't always think before they tweet. I'm willing to bet that the tweet that inspired #CancelColbert was posted by one person working on The Colbert Report who thought they were being funny and clever. They didn't take the time to consider how offensive it could be, and there wasn't anybody else who could stop the tweet from going live.
This whole incident made me realize that Twitter is a poor platform for comedy. There are no doubt plenty of offensive jokes that get thrown around by the writers of The Colbert Report, but those never make it on the air. Writing a TV show like The Colbert Report is a process that involves a lot of people, and for every offensive joke that is suggested there is someone there to shoot it down or rewrite it into something more acceptable. That same thing can't be said about someone trying to be funny on Twitter. There are times when my Twitter feed is full of offensive "jokes" that are probably only funny to whoever posted them. Nobody is there to stop this crap from going online, so a Twitter comedy account becomes one person throwing out random jokes and hoping some of them are funny.
Does the "throw shit at the wall to see what sticks" approach to comedy work? Sometimes it does, but sometimes it just makes people want to #CancelColbert.
People don't seem to realize that what they do online can have serious consequences. If you're on Twitter (or Facebook, Tumblr or any other social network), please think before you post. There are enough stupid bigots on the Internet without you looking like one of them.
