Apparently Stephen Colbert is testifying before the house immigration subcommittee this Friday. In character.

His testimony will relate to his experience participating in the Take Our Jobs initiative put on by the United Farm Workers union. The initiative invited people to come and try the jobs that illegal immigrants do now, like farm work, to see if they’re really taking jobs that Americans want. Since Colbert was one of only 4 people who took them up on the offer, he’ll be testifying about it.

Why he’s doing it in character isn’t entirely clear, but I suppose he’s got some fans in Congress who wouldn’t mind spicing up what would surely otherwise be a very boring subcommittee.

– Adam Frucci, SplitSider.com.

Wait, it’s not entirely clear why Stephen Colbert is testifying before a Congressional subcommittee in character? How about because a) that’s just an awesome thing to do and b) Stephen Colbert never breaks character.

During my senior year of college, I co-ran a big fake campaign for a fake candidate for Georgetown’s student-body president against some of the precise sort that end up on house subcommittees, and I can attest that most of them demand to be taken seriously. And Colbert is so good at his role that he’ll be able to impart exactly the information he wants to get across while remaining true to his character and simultaneously mocking the entire process.

Take note, Joaquin Phoenix. This is how performance art is done.