The worst and most appropriate moments from Stephen Colbert’s now-cancelled ‘Late Show’

Stephen Colbert’s run as host of CBS’ “The Late Show” is done, and to that I say, “Good riddance!” Colbert took over the gold mine. The golden ticket. A fortune in terms of late night television is not wasted because of his obsession with dividing the audience along political lines he ended up turning a large part of America away from singing his show.

As Fox News contributor Joe Concha pointed out, CBS was reportedly operating “The Late Show” at a loss of $40 million under Colbert. The show has also hired 22 writers to do Colbert’s liberal-leaning monologues, while featuring only one Republican guest in the past six years — and that appearance came from former Rep. Liz Cheney.

The Media Research Center analyzed all “Late Show” jokes since the beginning of 2023 and found that 87% targeted conservatives, while almost all guests leaned liberally. According to the study, Colbert has made 3,639 jokes about President Donald Trump since January 3, 2023, the night before his last episode. By comparison, former President Joe Biden was the subject of 339 jokes, and former Vice President Kamala Harris was mentioned in 21 jokes during that time, according to the study.

If there’s any question about whether Colbert was one of the political stories of the left, just look at the farewell messages from Democrats and many liberal politicians following his last night, which aired Thursday night.

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Colbert’s time as host of “The Late Show” was undoubtedly full of political activism, leftist propaganda, and many stressful and attention-grabbing moments, as Joseph Wulfson also pointed out in his piece.

Here are some of the worst:

Vulgar Trump and Putin Gay Lover Joke

In May of 2017, Colbert’s opening monologue focused on President Trump. I know, shocker. He said, “It’s the 102nd day of the Trump presidency, 1,358 days have passed. But who’s counting?” He also joked about smearing contestants in the Miss USA Pageant, said he “attracts more blondes than free Rogaine,” and made a sexually explicit joke about Trump having gay oral sex with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If you can’t stomach the skill of watching this 12 minutes of vitriol, dressed up as “comedy,” you’ll probably leave thinking about this quote from Billy Madison:

“What you just said is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. Nowhere in your speech, your incoherent response was close to anything that could be considered rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumbfounded for listening to you. I’m not giving you points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Stephen Colbert hosts The Late Show with guests Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers during an episode on May 11, 2026, in New York. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)

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The Vax-Scene

For many, this clip is what led to the complete and utter ruin of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” After trying to tell his audience to be aware that Big Pharma may be exploiting American citizens in a time of global violence, Colbert changed his tune (pun intended) and aired the most late-night television propaganda we’ll ever see.

When the COVID-19 vaccine was released, Colbert introduced a recurring segment called “The Vax-Scene,” a Broadway musical-esque dance number that featured dancers wearing syringes while singing the 1958 hit “Tequila” by The Champs. Instead of saying “Tequila!” they shouted “Goma!”

As Joe Rogan once said about the bit, “Where’s the joke?” Just another negative piece of political propaganda that has no laughs.

Bless your heart if you can get through this 80 second video. Time to never get back, unfortunately.

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Pedro Pascal Kiss

Colbert often hugged guests on his show, both male and female. It wasn’t easy and at times it seemed more like a joke than a joke. One of those rare smooches was in May when Pedro Pascal stopped by the show to promote the now-defunct Star Wars movie, “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”

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After Colbert introduced Pascal, the actor pointed to his lips, indicating that he wanted Colbert to kiss him. Colbert hesitated and leaned in to kiss Pascal. After that Colbert turned around, unable to look at Pascal, and the crowd cheered, Pascal said, “I was jealous.” Colbert replied, “No need. Anytime.”

Another really bad moment that didn’t involve any real laughs.

Hunter Biden’s Laptop

In an October 2020 cold snap titled “Rudy, the Russians, and Hunter’s Lappy Top,” Colbert mocks Hunter Biden’s laptop story as a “laptop conspiracy” featuring the Osborne Brothers’ “Rocky Top.” The song mocked Trump, his “dog” Rudy Giuliani and musically said that the whole story is “conflicting claims of made-up kompromat.”

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Once again, Colbert sought Russian connections between Trump and the Russian government, calling it disinformation, along with stories from many liberal news channels ahead of the 2020 election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

And then, as explained in the Twitter Files, Twitter blocked users from sharing New York Post links to Hunter Biden’s laptop. Meta, which includes Facebook, also concentrated the story’s reach on social media, leading many conservatives to rightly call it election interference.

Sorry to waste your time with another unfunny video, but if I have to remember these bad times of the Colbert administration, I need people to suffer with me.

Colbert’s hiring wasn’t just disappointing in terms of ratings and revenue, it was a disaster. A complete liberal dumpster fire that alternated between laughs and insults. Consistency jokes. Sarcasm by smelling politics. It was just left wing political theater and a liberal session instead of late night comedy.

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When Johnny Carson left, he was truly missed. It was actually an emotional last show, unlike Colbert’s exit. Johnny Carson has repeatedly expressed that he believes that late night broadcasters should primarily entertain people, not preach politics to them. “Why do they think just because you have the ‘Tonight Show’ you have to deal with serious issues? It’s dangerous. It’s really dangerous when you start that … You can put people off, and I don’t think you should be a singer,” Carson said in a 1979 “60 Minutes” interview with Mike Wallace.

Stephen Colbert and Robert De Niro on “The Late Show” on Wednesday. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)

Carson also deliberately avoided revealing many of his political views publicly because he thought it would alienate part of the audience. Seems prophetic, doesn’t it? According to his longtime friend Howard Smith, “He felt that his job was to please people… That’s why he didn’t get into talking about politics at all.”

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If Colbert took the Carson route, he’d probably be on the air and most of America wouldn’t look down on him now.

Colbert for a long time, and never bring your political propaganda into your script writing for your new movie “Lord of the Rings”. If you won’t respect conservatives, at least respect JRR Tolkien and his source material.