dumb act

Carlson's playing dumb act works primarily as permission to his audience to let go of any lingering attachment to good faith or rationality.

But looking dumb is part of the playing dumb act, and it's all an elaborate troll aimed at one end: dismantling the very concept of rational discourse by flooding the zone with extremely stupid arguments.

It was a dumb act, but it’s no reason to shun him.

It was sometimes referred to as "the dumb act," in which he pantomimed physical comedy to classical and jazz recordings played on a wind-up record player.

“I had the dumb act, but I made my living from writing. It was only later that somebody told me I did the clowning better than the comics I was demonstrating the material to.”