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Stephen Colbert Revives Right-Wing Alter Ego to Rip Donald Trump on Free Speech
(www.thedailybeast.com)
I would love for Colbert Report to come back.
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Same!
Tangentially, I had a hilarious debate with someone several months ago who was convinced the Colbert Report version of Steven Colbert was just who he actually was, and somehow had a significant amount of difficulty understanding that it was a bit… despite how comically fucking obviously it’s a bit. Low key curious if I accidentally came across the guy who invited Colbert to W’s press correspondents gala all those years ago (and may I just say holy fuck his speech at that event was just… 👨🍳 💋 )
A lot of conservatives actually believed he was as he was in the show.
Conservatives historically have never understood sub context, even if it jumps up and slaps them in the mouth.
I seem to remember some study that seemed to indicate that conservatives tend to have a hard time understanding satire. It was around the same time as The Colbert Report being on the air.
You couple this with seeing that cons tend to have overly large/overly active amygdalas, and when you hear them saying that "liberalism is a mental disorder", I think it's yet another example of them projecting, since they seem to have certain mental disabilities.
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I was a conservative when Colbert Report was on.
Can confirm. I believed he was a conservative.
Honestly curious. Did you ever watch a full episode of the show or multiple episodes of the show?
I watched it pretty regularly. It took longer than it should have for me to realize that it was a satire.
Maybe three seasons in?
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For what it’s worth, Bush knew it was a roast. Roasting the president is a traditional part of the press correspondents’ dinner (or was, before paper-thin-orange-skin became president). Earlier in that very same dinner, Bush did a bit roasting himself with a Bush impersonator.
Every so often, I used to go back and re-watch the entire thing. It was just so good.
I had to laugh when the "liberal media" was later spinning it the next day (and the hard right outlets like Faux and hate radio picked this up and used this spin - "see, even the liberal media says it was bad!") as not that funny, it got hardly any laughs in the room, etc.
Yeah, NO SHIT many people in the room weren't erupting in loud guffaws. He was making fun of YOU motherfuckers, too. Right to your smug little faces.
Just like Orange Jesus didn't erupt into laughter when years later, Seth tore him a new one right to his face, as did Obama. Orange Jesus sat there, seething. Orange Jesus gave it 0 stars, boo, it was terrible, no more discussion. LOL.
Seth Meyers still apologizes for that, sarcastically of course, but it’s hilarious that enough people blame his joke for jumpstarting Trump’s campaign. Trump seething from his table while everyone around him cracks up is burned into my memory.
I'm sure it makes a convenient narrative for people to blame Seth for this.
Again, notice that it's another example of Murc's Law here, by the way: as a conservative, Taco has no agency, he was pushed into running by the nasty liberal cracking jokes and poor Taco just had no choice but to run to get revenge against Obama, against Seth, and against any American that doesn't love everything related to Taco.
In any case, Taco had mulled running multiple times and even tried to run prior, and failed. All that birtherism stuff he was shoveling during Obama's administration was likely his racist way of testing the waters for yet another attempt.
https://www.tvguide.com/news/donald-trump-presidential-campaign-timeline/
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He talked about why he left at one point and this was part of it. Because even if he didn't mean what he said there were still people that believed him.
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Him and Stewart should do a "Crossfire" show
it would be amazing if Stewart wore a bow-tie. I would love to watch that.
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The Daily Show was also killing it last night. Jon’s Trump themed set was amazing.
My god it was so gaudy it was brilliant
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HE'S BACK BABY!
If Trump thinks this is genuine, then he really isn’t very bright.
Lots of conservatives thought the Colbert Report was genuine. My dad was one of them.
All the conservatives crying that Colbert "went woke" when he moved to late night is one of my favorite TV memories. They really believed he was a counter to the daily show at the time, even when he was busy inventing words like "truthiness"
It’s wild how prescient the original Truthiness broadcast was when you look back. That concept effectively sums up a lot about how we got here
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My ex-wife’s Fox News / Bill Orielly (and who was that guy who would put on glasses and cry?) loving dad was also one of them.
He used to applaud Comedy Central for being more balanced by adding him after The Daily Show…. Dumb as a brick.
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Yes!! I was hoping for this. He needs to become very slowly progressive. This will change some people’s beliefs since they don’t understand sarcasm.
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Can he do that? I thought another network had rights to the character, they even did a whole bit where they both show up on stage to differentiate them.
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