Stephen Colbert is one the latest late show hosts to have come under fire for comments about President Donald Trump and his relationship to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The conservative base that supports Trump demanded Colbert be fired over his comments, which they found to be vulgar and not respectful of the President. This all occurred just a few days before the scheduled 20th anniversary celebration that Colbert had planned to commemorate when he began working at the Daily Show. For this, he called his long time friend Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, and a number of other people he met during his stint at the Daily Show.
The cold open featured all of his guests, as they were in 2005, sitting and trying to compete for Trevor Noah’s attention while tossing jokes about what their future would hold for them. With many references to the current political issues that are taking place today, there was plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments to applaud.
In the second part of the show, Colbert first spoke with Stewart, who made reference to the host’s “potty mouth” while resoundingly assuring the public that he stood 100% behind Colbert’s words. They went on to joke about Stewart’s farm and Bill O’Reilly’s firing, before returning once again to the call for Colbert’s firing.
Stewart expanded on this topic, mentioning that Colbert says, even if their are crass, are meant as jokes. He added that while “we can insult, he (meaning the President) can injure.”
The rest of the guests joined them in the next segment, where they sat and reminisced about their starts, the many experiences they had as correspondents in the Daily Show, including one hilarious and at the same time terrifying story about a close call with the KKK.
The show ended with Colbert thanking his guests and telling the audience that that was exactly what it’d been like to be backstage at the Daily Show. He thanked Jon Stewart for giving him the chance to start his career, something which many other political comedians these days can join their voices to.