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Colberts Giddy Response to Trumps Failed Attempt at a Burn: I Won
On Thursday night, the Late Show host delivered one of his most scathing rants yet.
by
Laura Bradley
May 11, 2017 9:48 pm
The schoolyard insult-slinging between Stephen Colbert and Donald Trump continues. The president recently caught wind of the particularly harsh rant Colbert went on last weekthe one that got Trump supporters so riled they started complaining to the F.C.C.and couldnt help but try and land a jab of his own. (It didnt go so well.) On top of the inaccuracy of Trumps response, the president made an even more monumental miscalculation by responding in the first placeand handing Colbert exactly what hed wanted all along.
The president of the United States has personally come after me and my showand theres only one thing to say, Colbert said on Thursday night, after reading Trump's entire complaint about him in his "Trump" voice and before bursting into a fit of giggles. Yay!
Colberts enmity with the president has done nothing but strengthen his Late Showand by responding to Colberts jab, Trump simply poured kerosene on an already raging fire. The Late Show host has been on a ratings roll for the last week, finally beating Jimmy Fallon in the key 18 to 49 demographic thanks, at least in part, to all the furor surrounding last weeks lewd Trump joke. And thats precisely why Colbert shamelessly celebrated this as a victory: he finally got the president to complain about him by name, joining the ranks of institutions as S.N.L. and The New York Timesamong others. None of them seem to have suffered much for it.
Mr. Trump, theres a lot you dont understand, Colbert continued Thursday night. But I never thought one of those things would be show business. Dont you know Ive been trying for a year to get you to say my name? And you were very restrained. Admirably restrained! But now you did it. I won.
From there, Colbert launched into one of his most scathing rants yet, pummeling the president from every angle, including those that could hurt the most. After months of needling Trump, it's clear Colbert knows exactly which buttons to pushnot things like the backlash surrounding Trump's decision to fire James Comey, but pettier material. The stuff that really keeps Trump up at night.
Oh, please dont make me trend on Twitter again, Colbert snarked. Dont throw me in that #briarpatch. But youre not wrong. I will give this to the man: I do occasionally use adult language, and I do it in publicinstead of in the privacy of an Access Hollywood bus. And its true. The night you appeared on the show, right over there, was very highly rated. In fact, the only episode that got better ratings was the night I had Jeb Bush on. Thats right. You got beat by low-energy Jeb. (Bush appeared on the first episode of Colberts Late Show, which garnered 6.6 million viewerscompared with the Trump episodes 4.6 million later that month.)
But dont worry, Colbert continued. You won the Ratings College. And making jokes about you has been good for ratings; its almost as if the majority of Americans didnt want you to be president. But you know whos got really bad ratings these days? You do. Terrible approval numbers. I hear theyre thinking about switching your time slot with Mike Pence. But since all of my success is clearly a based on talking about you, if you want to take me down, theres an obvious way: resign. I mean, if you did that, what would I talk about thenexcept your resignation, because that would be fun. And heres the thing: a president going after someone telling jokes is unprecedented. Thatd be like Richard Nixon going after Alfred E. Neuman. And if I may, Mr. President, Id like to quote that great man: What, me, worry?
Warpy
(111,267 posts)posted because the audience reaction is great and because he didn't use any language that could possibly have offended the sensitive ears of any church lady of either sex:
hunter
(38,316 posts)He nailed it.