Late-night highlights: Stephen Colbert on Boston, Russell Brand on Jennifer Lawrence

Looking for a few laughs today? Allow us to direct you to some of the videos below, starting with one that could make you laugh and cry at the same time.

While we have heard already from a number of comedians on the subject of the tragedy in Boston earlier this week, we’re not sure anyone took a more brazen approach than Stephen Colbert. While he still paid tribute to those going through a hard time, he also took this as an opportunity to praise the city for its toughness, telling a few jokes about everything from the Red Sox to how people choose to spend their day off running in the Boston Marathon “for fun.”

There are not often moments that Colbert’s character shows any sort of genuine emotion, but this was one of them, and we really don’t think that he could have played it any better. It’s a challenging situation for late-night comedians to be in: you cannot ignore the tragedy, but you must also be cognizant of the fact that so many people are watching you hoping for some sort of escape from the world.

In speaking of escape, the second clip we have below is really not designed to do anything other than try to make you laugh. Russell Brand was on “Conan” this week, and of course this led to some very bizarre riffs all about his personal life, working on movies, and his new obsession with Jennifer Lawrence. He’s a polarizing comic, but we’re not sure that anyone is really sharper or bolder than he is while still maintaining a job on TV.

If you want to see Craig Ferguson’s discussion of the Boston tragedy earlier this week, you can do so over here.

Photo: Comedy Central