I think conservatives like Stephen Colbert because, well, for the same reason conservatives like Ignatius Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces.  While both Colbert and Reilly seem to be lampooning conservatism with their satire of it, they’re actually revealing what’s good about it, and what’s bad about the other.  When Colbert, on his show, offers a “tribute to the ladies” by inviting Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem on the show to bake apple pies, he’s not just saying something about sexism.  He’s saying something about the paradox of feminism, too. 

But what’s Colbert really like? 

This profile at Vanity Fair gives a pretty fair and balanced picture.  Colbert says he likes being normal in his off time.

“That’s why I drive myself home at night,” adds Colbert, who lives on a cul-de-sac in suburban Montclair, New Jersey. “The network would happily-they don’t want me tired; they don’t want me running off the road-they’d happily send me home in a car. But I’d work the entire way home, and I need more than the 30 seconds from the car to the front door to become a dad and a husband again. So I drive home and I crank my tunes. And by the time I get there, I’m normal again.”

Read the rest here.