Colbert Stops Playing Political Softball With Donald Trump And Inspirs Boos From His audience

Colbert Stops Playing Political Softball With Donald Trump And Inspirs Boos From His audience

Colbert gets his political teeth back.

BY 

• JOANNA ROBINSON

When Donald Trump first made the late-night talk-show rounds last September, the hosts were inclined to go easy on him. Even Stephen Colbert who built his brand on skewering bloated conservative rhetoric, handled the Republican front-runner with kid gloves, at least relative to the candidate’s own scorched-earth performance style. But four months later, with Trump still the nominee to beat, Colbert, at least, seems done playing softball. Though Trump was too busy campaigning in Colbert’s home state of South Carolina to appear in person, he called in to the show Tuesday to make a bid for the southern vote. Colbert took full advantage of Trump’s long-distance appearance and inspired his audience to boo the presidential hopeful.

Even on his new home at CBS, where he’s shed the blowhard character he perfected in his years at Comedy Central, Colbert has proved he can be quite the persistent political interviewer. The night before Trump’s September appearance, Colbert held Senator Ted Cruz’s feet over the fire when discussing Ronald Reagan’s legacy, repeating questions over and over again and not giving Cruz room to slip sideways out of the conversation. But the next night, Stephen seemed more inclined to humor Trump than to nail him to any one point. At the time Colbert asked Trump, “Barack Obama, born in the United States?” and let Trump get away with the answer, “I don’t talk about that anymore.” There was no follow-up.

What a difference a phone call makes. In Tuesday night’s segment, Colbert didn’t let Trump skate by on half-truths or evasions. There was still obvious humor to mine from the situation—the be-wigged orange Trump phone alone drew some solid laughter from the audience. When Trump—following up on a recent news story about his foul language—claimed that he stopped swearing when he decided to run for office, Colbert cut Trump off and, talking over him, said, “But you didn’t stop. You didn’t stop. Running for office you didn’t stop.” When Trump tried to wriggle out of Colbert’s correction, Stephen mugged for the audience making it clear how little he respected the answer.

Having established an anti-Trump stance that Trump himself couldn’t see, Colbert let the candidate hoist himself by his own petard when talking about whether the Senate should block a Barack Obama–selected candidate for Supreme Court. Trump’s declaration that anyone replacing the late Antonin Scalia should be nominated by the next president of the United States drew a very light smattering of applause that was quickly drowned out by loud boos. “You’re not making any friends here, Donald, I hate to say,” Colbert joked, having created an environment where anti-Trump sentiments were welcome.

So why go hard on Trump now? It might be that recent political events like that towering victory in the New Hampshire primary have inspired Colbert to take the threat of a Trump presidency more seriously. Or it may be the fact that his recent scorching take down of Sarah Palin is one of the most popular segments in the show’s history, easily racking up more online views in just a few weeks than his early treatment of Trump did in several months.

Either way it’s refreshing to see Colbert return a bit more to his Comedy Central roots. Seth Meyers—who is slowly building a rock-solid reputation as a canny political commenter—recently pointed out, “The stuff that does best for us always has a point of view. That’s where audiences are very savvy these days; they respect knowing what hosts believe.” In other words, if audiences want a Trump joke, parody, or sketch, they have a wealth of options from Funny or Die to S.N.L. to The Tonight Show, but if they want truly biting, informed political comedy, there are only a few places left to turn. In our first presidential election in a long time without Jon Stewart, Meyers and another Daily Show alum, John Oliver, have been doing an admirable job carrying the baton. It’s about time Colbert got back in the race where he belongs.