O'Reilly Calls Portion of Colbert Audience 'Complete Dunderheads'

Last night, Bill O'Reilly tried to prove that viewers of The O'Reilly Factor are more intelligent than those of his satirical nemesis Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report.

"Little Stevie Colbert's ratings have been flat lately, even though he's gotten increasingly nasty. And a recent article in The San Francisco Chronicle that Colbert's audience is smarter than the Factor audience," Mr. O'Reilly said. "Of course, that is false."

As Mr. O'Reilly continued, "According to a Pew Research study, a whopping 83 percent of Factor viewers have a high or moderate knowledge of current events, as opposed to 79 per cent for little Stevie. Also, 21 per cent of his audience are complete dunderheads. But just 17 percent of Factor watchers have trouble walking and chewing gum, the lowest percentage of any news program."

But let's step into the no spin zone and break this down further: In terms of high, moderate, and low awareness viewers, Mr. O'Reilly's audience (51-32-17) loses to Mr. Colbert's (54-25-21) in the brainiest demographic. In fact, the Chronicle article only notes that Mr. Colbert's audience is more educated, not more knowledgeable. The Pew study found that college grads compose 31 percent of Mr. Colbert's audience and just 24 percent of O'Reilly's.

So, who wins? Depends on if audiences are laughing with the host or at him.