Stephen Colbert has been making fans laugh for decades but his true journey into late night and elite status began when he finally got his own show called The Colbert Report. It was that show that proved Colbert could handle an audience on his own and command a room all by himself. It was that show that landed Colbert a number of speaking opportunities where he would prove to anyone that late night might be in his future.
Perhaps one of his greatest shining moments and examples of this proof was when Colbert took the mic at the 2008 Spina Bifida Association roast. P.S. I’m pretty sure if Colbert ran for President in 2020 he would win. I’ve already mentioned how a Jon Stewert/Stephen Colbert ticket would completely dominate. Anyway……
Here’s an excerpt from the Washington Post on that night and the video below:
Stephen Colbert came back. Right here to the same room where he made official Washington so cranky back in ’06. Here to the Hilton Washington ballroom, where his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner got few laughs and was panned because it skewered — not so artfully, many thought — President Bush and the media.
But here he is up on the stage. And this time, finally, Colbert is getting laughs. “The one and only — and one is too many — Stephen Colbert!” Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s delegate in Congress and one of Colbert’s favorite foils, declares. This is the matchup everyone has been waiting for in the buildup to the 20th Annual Roast for Spina Bifida. Their snippy, prickly — utterly hilarious — confrontations on “The Colbert Report” are Internet sensations. It was Colbert who noted on his show that Norton helped write federal sexual harassment guidelines during the Carter administration. “Then, why are you undressing me with your eyes, congresswoman?” Colbert asked her. “You flatter yourself, sir,” Norton shot back.
“It looked like you just raped me with your eyes just then,” Colbert parried. But tonight is different. Norton has the mike. “Watch out, Colbert,” she says. “Let’s see how tough you are without your writers. . . . What do we call ‘The Colbert Report’ with funnier material? ‘The Daily Show,’ sir!” The crowd loves it.
Check out the full roast below:
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