It would be impossible to overstate the admiration I felt for comedian Stephen Colbert in my early 20s. As America stumbled into successive disasters during the George W. Bush presidency, Colbert’s pitch-perfect parody of a hyperpatriotic news anchor on Comedy Central exposed the self-important stooges who operated the machinations of government and media. And it was funny as hell, from the eagle’s cry at the beginning of the intro to the rippling American flag graphics to Colbert’s pretentious lift of the brow.
At the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Colbert crossed over from comedy star to folk legend. In one of the most daring moments in the history of American comedy, Colbert delivered a searing and uproariously funny roast of the most powerful man in the world, sitting only a few feet away. As the 17-minute bit ran its course, Bush’s good-natured grin morphed into a spiteful grimace. It later emerged that his team hadn’t properly vetted Colbert’s act and thought he was a conservative comedian (heckuva job, everyone!). Colbert went for the jugular. It remains one of the most quintessentially American cultural moments: no royalty, no ceremony, no limits.
With the dawn of the Obama presidency in 2008, Colbert, along with the rest of American comedy, had trouble finding his footing. Writers for late-night shows such as Colbert’s struggled to identify the comedic aspect of Obama. For the first time in their careers, comedians faced an audience that had no interest in laughing at the most powerful man in the free world.
“The thing is,” veteran late-night writer Mike Barry said, “he’s not buffoonish in any way. He’s not a comical figure.”
Even Colbert’s Comedy Central pal, Jon Stewart, whose audience was often derided as a room of clapping seals, was caught off-guard by the hesitancy surrounding the new president. “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him,” Stewart teased his audience in 2008 during a bit that teased Obama about his flip-flop on campaign financing.
Despite the lull in great material during the Obama presidency, Colbert earned the honor of becoming David Letterman’s heir on The Late Show when the latter retired in 2014. CBS’s announcement that Colbert would assume command of the Ed Sullivan Theater seemed even to shock the comedian himself (“I won TV!” he exclaimed). It soon leaked that Colbert would ditch his conservative character and perform as himself. The public was intrigued but far from sold. After all, no one knew who the real Colbert was.
But it quickly became clear that Colbert was a likable, witty, and thoroughly ordinary late-night liberal whose material was qualitatively indistinguishable from other hosts of the genre. Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and Trevor Noah, Stewart’s replacement on The Daily Show, all basically filled the same cultural lane as middle-aged guys in suits pandering to the cultural elite and punching down on the concerns of working-class America.
And all the while, the progressive Left was successfully waging a war on the culture, the ramifications of which are painfully clear today. Indeed, by the time President Barack Obama left office, the new “woke” ideology reigned supreme in every nonreligious cultural institution, from academia to Hollywood to corporate America and beyond. For liberal comedians such as Colbert, this inversion of the cultural power structure away from traditional values and toward secular progressivism made it difficult to appear edgy and rebellious. More often, Colbert appeared to function as just another defender of the status quo. Long gone were the days of the 2006 WHCD when he swung at the powerful.
The Trump years further reduced Colbert’s act to the ranks of the ordinary. With the rise of Resistance comedy shows such as Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, among others, the news satire industry Colbert once dominated became diluted. In response to these shifting dynamics, Colbert appeared to stand firm in defending the cultural liberal establishment.
This tact culminated in his widely panned and downright creepy “Vax-scene” bit in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which Colbert danced to the tune of “Tequila” onstage with men dressed as syringes. More than jarringly unfunny, the segment underscored Colbert’s transformation from anti-establishment jester to pro-Big Pharma shill. For longtime fans, the change was unfathomable.
In late February, Colbert used his monologue to make a “public service announcement” that cautioned his viewers not to become numb to the alleged crimes of former President Donald Trump. Looking sternly into the camera, Colbert proclaimed that it wasn’t “normal for a candidate for president to have to defend himself in multiple courts!”
Of course, Colbert is correct in this regard: A former president and presidential candidate has never been prosecuted to this extent. But the commentary landed flat for anyone beyond the establishment bubble for numerous reasons, including the obvious fact that any number of former presidents have engaged in immoral, if not criminal, activity.
Colbert expected his audience to be shocked that Trump issued “hush money” to a porn star with whom he’d had an affair despite the fact that most presidents cheated on their wives and attempted to cover it up, particularly former president and liberal darling Bill Clinton; that many presidents and powerful people have mishandled sensitive and classified intelligence, including President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and that innumerable liberal tycoons have surely committed fraud by inflating their wealth on financial statements.
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But in the eyes of most of the public, it appears suspicious that only Trump has been prosecuted for these misdeeds, and in coordinated fashion. It would surprise the liberal elite to learn that this is why his polling numbers have skyrocketed in recent months.
A younger, more subversive Colbert wouldn’t have missed this crucial subtext. He would have made a far more interesting comment or at least a funny joke. I, for one, miss the satirical, anti-establishment genius of the Colbert Report. And I’m far from alone.
Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, and the National Catholic Register.
