Stephen Colbert Forced to Retire ‘Stephen Colbert,’ Introduces ‘Stephen Colbert’
Stephen Colbert was forced to retire his beloved “Stephen Colbert” character on The Late Show Wednesday, just one week after reviving the Colbert Report host. But Colbert quickly soothed audience boos by introducing the identical twin cousin of “Stephen Colbert,” “Stephen Colbert.”
As Colbert — host of The Late Show — explained, immediately after the episode aired, corporate lawyers (presumably from Comedy Central, or its parent company Viacom) contacted CBS to say that the “Colbert” character was their intellectual property. “What can I do?” Colbert joked. “I cannot reasonably argue I own my face or name.”
A representative for Comedy Central declined to comment.
Despite the loss, the new “Stephen Colbert” proved just as patriotic as his twin cousin (a strange biological phenomenon he explained in succinct detail). “Colbert” also requested the opportunity to officially join the Late Show team, promising, “Stephen, whenever you need me, wild horses ridden by corporate lawyers could not keep me away.”
While Colbert was happy to welcome “Stephen Colbert,” he admitted there were other parts of the Colbert Report he missed, but could not legally revive on The Late Show But, again, he found a loophole and introduced the completely new, original Late Show segment, “The Werd.”
Stephen Colbert invaded the RNC to crack jokes about Donald Trump and Mike Pence from the Cleveland stage. Watch here.