FBNY frenemy Stephen Colbert loves talking about the "Colbert Bump" — the supposed boost in popularity and book sales that an appearance on his show brings.

Now it turns out the Colbert Bump is real.

University of California at San Diego political science professor James Fowler just wrote an article [PDF] for Political Science & Politics that analyzed campaign donations to politicians pre- and post-Colbert.

Democratic candidates who appeared on Colbert saw their campaign donations jump by a staggering 44 percent.

According to Fowler:

"In this article I use "facts" (sorry, Stephen) provided by the Federal Election Commission to create a matched control group of candidates who have never appeared on The Colbert Report. I then compare the personal campaign donations they receive to those received by candidates who have appeared on the program's segment "Better Know a District." The results show that Democratic candidates who appear on the Report receive a statistically significant "Colbert bump" in campaign donations, raising 44 percent more money in a 30-day period after appearing on a show. However, there is no evidence of a similar boost for Republicans. These results constitute the first scientific evidence of Stephen Colbert's influence on political campaigns.

Hmm. Maybe Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be considering Colbert appearances right now...