By Anthony Maglio,Tony Maglio
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September 18, 2025 9:20pm
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Stephen Colbert as Stephen Colbert, the political pundit on ‘The Colbert Report’
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Stephen Colbert pulled out all the stops in defending his late-night competitor and friend Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday. That included pulling out his old Comedy Central character: Stephen Colbert the political pundit and host of The Colbert Report.
Cue the bald eagle screech.
“Hello, nation,” Colbert said in character. “Daddy’s home.”
The faux Colbert jumped right back into his signature segment, “The Word,” which puts the conservative words coming out of his Republican mouth at odds with contradictory text in a side-chyron. To get us out of this “free-speech crisis,” Colbert suggests we all just…don’t say anything. And certainly not aloud.
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Regarding the First Amendment, Colbert said, ”You can have your rights just as long as you don’t use them.” (Chyron: “Like a gym membership.”)
“Give up, America. Just give up and stop saying anything that might upset the president,” Colbert concluded. “If you think that’s a terrible idea, no you don’t.”
Watch the segment below.
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Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended after mocking MAGA Republicans for scrambling to distance their own ideologies from those of Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson. Both sides of the aisle have been playing a game of hot potato with Robinson’s perceived political affiliations.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
The joke cost Kimmel at least a few nights of ABC’s airtime — discussions about whether and when Jimmy Kimmel Live! would and could return are still ongoing at the highest levels within The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC. Read the inside story on how Kimmel’s Disney suspension was handed down here.
Colbert still has a talk show — until next May at least. His guests on Thursday’s show were CNN’s Jake Tapper and The New Yorker editor David Remnick. Both heavily criticized Trump for meddling and Disney for, as Tapper put it, “acquiescing” to power.
In the old days, The Colbert Report’s lead-in was The Daily Show. Well, Jon Stewart is back in that chair — sometimes — read here to see how he tackled the Kimmel crisis. Over on NBC, Jimmy Fallon had something to say about this whole mess as well — as did Seth Meyers.
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