The limits of irony

The clever use of irony can make you rich and famous. It can elicit gales of laughter from people who agree with your point of view and the occasional chuckle from those who don’t.
Yet irony has its limits as a political tool. And it can backfire when substituted for serious discussion in a setting that still purports to be serious, as the clowns who invited professional ironist Steven Colbert to testify before Congress discovered today.