Stephen Colbert, 'arch conservative'

To use a word coined by Stephen Colbert, the writer and actor, there's a certain "truthiness" about Stephen Colbert, the character and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Indeed, Colbert the character, a right-wing blowhard on a one-man mission to reeducate the ignorant, is convincing enough that a recent Ohio State University study found that a majority of conservatives polled believed Colbert the man was one of them.

The irony couldn't please him more. "I'm thrilled by it!" he says, sitting in his New York office, a pack rat's homage to the show crammed with pictures and props and a "Lord of the Rings" pinball machine. "From the very beginning, I wanted to jump back and forth over the line of meaning what I say, and the truth of the matter is I'm not on anyone's side, I'm on my side," he says. "The important thing is that the audience laughs."

The audience has been obliging him for the last 3 1/2 years, when Jon Stewart crowned the "Daily Show" correspondent with his own realm. While Colbert, a South Carolina native who trained in improvisation at Chicago's famed Second City, earned three Emmys as a "Daily Show" writer, he has since proved himself a competitor. Last year, his show won a writing Emmy, and for the last three years, it has been pitted against "The Daily Show" for variety, music or comedy series. "Jon said, 'Don't think you need to thank me if you win because you don't need to perceive me as the reason you're doing this,' but it's the truth," says Colbert, who speaks with Stewart weekly. "He's very generous."

Colbert works hard not to disappoint. He and his staff of 90 put in a minimum of 12-hour days. "It's a new show, and I'm a control freak," admits Colbert, who keeps a piece of paper taped to his desk that reads "work." But, he continues, "What we're doing is difficult. We deconstruct the news into a joke, and then we falsely reconstruct the news into how my character would see it. The writers and I talk about how it's like driving an 18-wheeler backward down a highway. It's possible, but you have to constantly readjust the steering."