On the Media: Stephen Colbert heads to Washington, and Congress and media play the jokester

Leading up to Friday morning’s hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration, the question had to be asked: What could be sillier than comedian Stephen Colbert testifying on farm labor and immigration?

Surely the Congress of the United States of America would be sullied by the presence of this mere prankster, this entertainer, this clown, who would appear, audaciously, not as himself but as his fictional alter-ego, the bloviating right-wing talk show host.

It turns out that the real joke was not on Congress but by Congress, or at least some of its members. They and their fellow travelers in the punditocracy wouldn’t or couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea that satirists are citizens too. And that they are often the citizens with a way of cutting right to the guts of a matter.

That’s not to say that it played out exactly that way. Colbert’s most telling, and even moving, minutes before the committee came when he dropped his bombastic TV guise and spoke as himself about “the least of our brothers,” whose crucial work does not always come with crucial rights.

Colbert had taken a chance, as he has in the past, by pushing his fictional character out into the real world. He emerged from the two-hour Capitol Hill session with only modest yucks, but with his credibility intact.

The same could not be said of the congressmen and at least a couple of irony-challenged cable news hosts who insisted on making like Colbert had attacked the American worker, cost taxpayers a huge chunk of cash and threatened the, ahem, integrity of Congress.

The roots of the standing-room only hearing were planted in late June, when the Comedy Central host had Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America on his show. Rodriguez described the “Take Our Jobs” campaign, designed to disprove what the union says is the mythical desire of scads of native-born Americans to run to the fields in pursuit of jobs now stolen away by illegal migrants.

The union boss informed Colbert that, despite its earnest efforts, it had been able to find only three American citizens who wanted to pick, prune, stoop and sweat to their hearts’ content. The comedian immediately agreed to sign on to be the fourth guest farm worker.

He visited an upstate New York corn and produce farm in late August to film a segment, along with U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who had also signed on to be part of the UFW’s education campaign.

“The Colbert Report” aired the segments from the farm Wednesday and Thursday night — featuring the host in a goofy sun hat and apron struggling to pick beans, stealing from fellow farm worker’s buckets and literally laying down on the job.

Colbert dished out his requisite dose of silliness, calling Lofgren a “notorious Mexican hugger” and suggesting that the whole concept of farm work seemed “archaic.”

“We don’t get our food from farms,” he said. “We get it from the grocery store.”

The idea that Colbert could be having fun while attempting to make a serious point — that there has not proven to be tremendous demand among U.S. citizens for farm labor jobs — seemed to be lost on some in his audience.

Even the idea that a comedian would appear in character before the government sent certain Fox News personalities to steaming.

“Fox & Friends” host Gretchen Carlson on Thursday decried the idea that “we are going to waste our taxpayer dollars for this guy to go up on Capitol Hill and we are supposed to sit there and take that.”

As far as I know the taxpayers own the room anyway and would have had the lights and microphones on, not to mention the room staffed to hear from three other witnesses — Rodriguez, a farm owner and a political scientist (the latter called by the Republicans) to discuss whether immigrants are truly needed to fill farm jobs.

Some on the committee inadvertently proved to be almost as big a joker as Colbert, the laugh lines thoroughly unintended. Rep. Steve King (R- Iowa) seemed deadly earnest when he opened his remarks wondering if fruit and vegetables were so critical, since Eskimos get by without them.

The Republicans weren’t alone in their confusion about how to deal with Colbert. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) first praised the committee witness, then suggested he leave before he had a chance to testify. Conyers later explained he had worried Colbert would turn the proceeding into a circus, then realized that Colbert said something “pretty profound.”

Fox News host Megyn Kelly soon had King on her show and both agreed they and the rest of America had suffered a grievous offense. King called it “an insult to the intelligence of the American people that Congress is conducting themselves in this fashion.”

Kelly then proceeded to argue that the hearing, and Colbert, had cost Americans $125,000. She came up with this figure by dividing the entire Judiciary committee’s budget — including staffing and all other expenses — by the number of hearings held a year.

Never mind that the hearing would have been held anyway, that Colbert had nothing to do with calling it or that members of both parties have previously taken testimony from performers such as Bono, Clint Eastwood, Julia Roberts and Elmo.

People may little note, nor long remember, but Colbert scored his most telling point near the end of the session when Rep. Judy Chu (D-El Monte) asked him why, of all issues, he would focus on farm workers.

“I like talking about people who don’t have any power,” said Colbert, the faux host faded away. “And it just seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights as a result. “

Colbert finished a minute later on a similar note. And when he did, for a brief moment, there was silence. It was the smartest sound to come out of the committee room all day.

James.rainey@latimes.com

Twitter: latimesrainey