Truthiness

2005

Date: 17 October 2005 · Place: The Colbert Report, premiere episode, Comedy Central · Figures: Stephen Colbert, host · Allison Silverman, head writer · Ben Karlin, executive producer · Tags: Coinage, Politics 01. The Premiere Word of the Word Stephen Colbert launches The Colbert Report on 17 October 2005 and opens with a segment called The Word. The first word is truthiness. Colbert defines it as the quality of seeming true to the gut without regard for evidence, books, or facts. The bit lands as a joke about George W. Bush and the Iraq war. The American Dialect Society names truthiness its 2005 Word of the Year in January 2006. Merriam-Webster picks it as 2006 Word of the Year. Colbert pretends to be furious that he was not credited and works it into the show. 02. A Diagnosis That Outlasts Its Punchline Truthiness names a posture the next twenty years of political discourse will be organised around. Cable news, social media, post-truth journalism, the entire 2016-2020 cycle, the 2026 deepfake election all live inside the word Colbert coined as a joke on a premiere. It is the rare meme that crosses out of comedy and into the dictionary while remaining funny. The diagnosis and the symptom keep pace with each other. Sources • Comedy Central, The Colbert Report S01E01 (17 October 2005) • American Dialect Society, 2005 Word of the Year announcement (6 January 2006) • Merriam-Webster, 2006 Word of the Year