‘The Colbert Report’: Stephen Colbert opens show with tribute to mother

In the middle of some other tragic news today, the return of Stephen Colbert to “The Colbert Report” may have fallen by the wayside for some people. However, if you were not choked up following the shocking death of James Gandolfini, hearing the comedian’s opening tribute to his mother Lorna, who died last week at age 92 might do the trick. Stephen has been on hiatus for the past week as he has been with his family, but on Wednesday he returned to the show and started things off by delivering an emotional tribute to a woman that he credits for shaping and inspiring his career, someone who went through many tragedies (Colbert’s father and two of his brothers died when he was young) and persevered.

We will have a full video when it is made available from Comedy Central, but we wanted to point you over to a full transcript of everything that the host had to say in the opening of his show. He tells her full story, and we find the closing line to be especially poignant when it comes to the roads in which television and real life meet:

“Now we can get to the truly important work of television broadcasting, which is what she would want me to do. When I was leaving her last week, I leaned over and I said, ‘mom, I’m going back to New York to do the show,’ and she said ‘I can’t wait to see it. I wouldn’t miss it for the world … So, with that in mind… this is the Colbert Report.”

Colbert did his best to run the rest of his show as per his normal tradition, staying largely in his character. But this marks an especially emotional moment given how private he traditionally is on the show, and how rare it is that he breaks away from comedy for something that is from his heart.

Update: The video can be seen below.

Photo: Comedy Central