Colbert and Stewart at the Emmys

This is a clip from last year's Emmy Awards.



So, at about 1:15, Colbert says, of reality TV, "It warps the minds of our children and weakens the resolve of our allies," and he says it, of course, as his alter-ego character, who everyone loves and tries not to take too seriously, and yet, somehow, people find actual truth in what he says. When he says this, the entire theater erupts in applause, and the camera pans to celebrities with very serious, "Yes, so true," faces. Because, hey, yeah, reality TV is stupid and annoying, right? They applaud him again when he refers to the Emmy as a golden idol.

And yet, when the nominees are shown, the audience applauds just as loudly, and of course, the clips picked are all of contestants crying, hugging each other, and being generally dramatic. So is it possible that *gasp* the audience actually likes reality TV after all? Were they just applauding Colbert because they thought he was being sarcastic? After all, they've come to the Emmys, the winners are probably not going to reject their award, and at some point, a group of people sitting around a table probably said to each other, "Hey, you know what would be hilarious? Having Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart give the reality TV award. They can talk about how stupid reality TV is and shit. People will eat it up."

So is it possible that, in fact, the audience can't help loving reality TV, even though they can't deny its stupidity and constant lack of actual reality, and therefore feel obligated to laugh when someone makes fun of it? Reality TV, after all, often admits right in the credits that some stuff had to be fabricated or re-enacted, and, in the case of competitions, fixed up to a point. Is anyone at the Emmys questioning why there's a reality TV award at all? Or at least how one goes about winning it?