Late-night notes: David Letterman, Stephen Colbert have fun with ‘Between Two Ferns’ headlines

We knew that President Barack Obama appearing on Zach Galifianakis’ web series “Between Two Ferns” was going to produce quite the reaction across the internet, but who knew the reaction was going to be anywhere near what it has been to date? The show was trending #1 on Twitter for practically 24 hours, and while there has been data proving that Obama’s appearance did help to spread his healthcare message, it also has brought out plenty of controversy by the media.

Perhaps the most entertaining criticism has come courtesy of Fox News, where Bill O’Reilly specifically chided Obama by saying that appearance is something that Abraham Lincoln would have never done. The moment was not as random / insane as the internet made it appear out of context, but of course late-night comedians still had a fun time with it … starting with O’Reilly’s frenemy Stephen Colbert. On “The Colbert Report” this week, he had a whole montage of Fox News accompanied with the same snarky commentary you expect. There’s nothing altogether revolutionary here, but it’s classic Colbert and therefore fun.

Meanwhile, David Letterman actually had O’Reilly on his show this week, and the host took advantage of the opportunity to try and defend himself over what he said. He tried to say that his criticism came out of the timing that Obama did the show, which was around the time that there was so much political turmoil in the Ukraine. He also justified his discussion of Lincoln by reminding Dave that he wrote a book about him. The conversation was weird, awkward, and sometimes funny … which is what Dave specializes in.

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Photo: Comedy Central