The original post: /r/television by /u/mediaman54 on 2026-04-19 22:00:31+00:00.
To be clear, Stephen Colbert is my favorite entertainer of all time. His work on The Daily Show and then The Colbert Report was nothing short of hilarious brilliance.
I was sad to see him move on to interviewing starlets promoting their CBS shows and movies, with a tidbit of comedy.
I guess the lure of big dollars was too much. He must have been set for life after the Report, but as usual for millionaires, too much is not enough.
We watch him waste time at the top, after the cheers subside, announcing his name to another big cheer. (Fallon is even worse, he tries to milk an extra cheer by saying the name of the show “The Tonight Show” after applause dies down, then again with his name.
Johnny Carson is long gone, so the name of the show The Tonight Show is meaningless. It’s either “Colbert,” or “Kimmel” or “Fallon” etc.
Kimmel is the best at this, he introduces himself during the initial cheer, the audience doesn’t even hear it, he just gets down to business, band interaction is rare. (Guilermo doesn’t add much, no matter what Kimmel says to him, he defaults to the clapping seal.)
I watched the Colbert monologues and bits for a while, but stopped.
I started back up this year, now that his claws are back out for the final landing.
Here’s what I can’t stand: Stephen doesn’t seem to know what to do if there’s a laugh or applause break during his monologue.
Instead he does the decades-old shtick of looking to his left at the bandleader, who adds nothing, Cato just points back at Stephen, or some other worthless gesture.
Or Colbert looks to his right for a quick discussion with his producer or his head writer about how the audience reaction to a joke met their expectations or not.
Hello! We’re the audience over here. No private discussions, pls.
This schtick is ancient. He’s just imitating what he saw as a child.
I look forward to Colbert’s next projects. After the Lord of the Rings thing.
While I’m on a rant, the video editors are lazy as hell, they cover edits with a quick shot of Cato, obviously from a different moment in time. I recently saw one of these edits, the drummer was staring blankly into space. Do better!
(I’m a retired video producer.)