Stephen Colbert has been a civic-minded voice of reason in troubled times

Boston Globe

3 days ago

He declared, memorably, that: 'You cannot laugh and be afraid at the same time.' He told them to remember that there's more to life than politics —
an important message for younger viewers.
That innate grasp of the big picture is part of what has set Colbert apart from other late-night TV hosts. And that is what we will miss, now that
Colbert is rivaled only by his good friend Jon Stewart in perfecting a blend of comedy-as-commentary. For years, Colbert and Stewart functioned, essentially, as running mates in an opposition party. Both knew that nothing takes the air out of a demagogue's balloon better than mockery.
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For all of the many, many times he made us laugh, Colbert often serves as a civic-minded voice of reason. Especially in an era when our political system sometimes appears to be coming apart at the seams, Colbert offers a nightly bit of catharsis and, in a weird way, comfort, without being smarmy or self-congratulatory about it in the least.
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The president who was so often Colbert's target wasted no time opining on the news, posting Friday morning on Truth Social: 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.' Trump added: 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!'
That predicable broadside is not likely to throw Colbert. Think of his
In his crisp blue suit, with his carefully parted hair, there is an old-timey air about Colbert. For all of his anarchic stunts — there is almost no place he will not go, comedically speaking — it was always clear how much he valued tradition. He was a proud, practicing Catholic.
There was a bumpy period when Colbert transitioned from his persona on Comedy Central's 'The Colbert Report,' where he played as a Bill O'Reilly-inspired right-wing blowhard, to his perch on CBS, where he could be his full, very liberal self.
But Colbert figured it out, along with his crack team of writers, who are the most creative and original on late-night TV. Any random five minutes of a Colbert monologue are often funnier than an entire month of 'Saturday Night Live.'
Over the years he has unabashedly described himself as a company man. It clearly mattered to him that his surname was arranged in large letters vertically along the Ed Sullivan Theatre. When he told his audience Thursday about the cancellation, he affectionately referred to CBS as 'the Tiffany Network,' an archaic nickname that no doubt sent many of his younger audience members hurrying to Wikipedia.
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Off the air, he is widely known for his personal decency in an industry that is not exactly overflowing with the milk of human kindness.
Indeed, just last month, in a commencement address at Northwestern University, his former fellow 'Daily Show' correspondent Steve Carell described Colbert as 'a famous, powerful person who is also kind,' adding: 'Stephen is a brilliant, wonderful person. Talented, generous, better than I am in almost every way. If he were here today, he'd probably be giving a better speech. An innovator, an icon, a family man, and friend.'
But Colbert was also capable of pure fury, and that is what he unleashed when a pro-Trump mob rampaged through the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of an effort to overturn the presidential election results.
Using his bully pulpit in a manner that would have seemed inconceivable to an earlier generation of late-night hosts such as Johnny Carson, Colbert called Trump 'a violence-inciting fascist'' and denounced the 'coordinated and planned attempt to terrorize, if not kill, our nation's elected leaders.'
For a long time afterwards, Colbert refused to say Trump's name on the air. Even in chyron text, it was rendered only as 'T****.'
Now that name is inescapable again, 24 hours a day. Colbert has another 10 months on the air, and he has work to do.
Don Aucoin can be reached at