Stephen Colbert spoke at the New Yorker Festival this weekend, and left his Bill O'Reilly persona at home. Instead, Colbert gave a rarely seen look at his Kaufman-esque technique for becoming the liberal media's favorite angry conservative:

He tells his guests: "My character is an idiot. So come on an disabuse me of my ignorance." He recalled the moment when he was about to say that to O'Reilly, and then pausing briefly as the irony sank in. Then he went ahead and gave his usual speech; O'Reilly didn't seem to notice anything.

(Colbert) thinks his audience, while skewing liberal, is a bit more centrist than Jon's: "I think there may be some people who don't know that I don't believe what I'm saying.

Oh god, really? Thought we went over this: how long does it take people to realize that they're watching a comedy show pretending to be a news show? Well, at least they're lucky The Colbert Report doesn't spoof hospital dramas, else there would be a lot more 911 calls for people who think they're dying of "vitriolic truthiness."