Stephen Colbert marries couple turned away by government shutdown, Mandy Patinkin performs

Somehow, Stephen Colbert may have been able to top his bizarre “Get Lucky” videos from earlier this year when it comes to being just completely and utterly insane. In the latest ones that we have for you today, romance is the theme … and true love comes to you in the form of two people tying the knot on his show simply because they were turned away by the U.S. Government, who closed all events at their original wedding site.

Colbert is really lucky first of all that he managed to find a pair of people in Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le, two people who were turned away as one of the casualties of this shutdown, that were willing to marry on TV. They had been on a few talk shows here and there talking about the fact that they were told that they could not hold their wedding as originally planned … and then Stephen stepped in.

For the sake of comedy (and possibly just kind-heartedness), Colbert threw the two a bash on Thursday’s show that included everything a couple could want under these circumstances: There was a celebrity performance from Mandy Patinkin, Smokey the Bear dropping by as the Best Man, lots of shots (to the point where Colbert may have been drunk during the entire ceremony), Colbert himself serving as the stripper for the bachelorette party, and also Audra McDonald singing “White Wedding” for the couple’s first dance after the wedding ceremony was over. Rather than walk down the aisle with a bouquet, Le walked down the aisle with Colbert’s recent Emmy.

All in all, it was hilarious and pretty moving at the same time. It’s probably not the wedding ceremony that they first envisioned, but talk about finding a way to have a cool event happen despite some weird circumstances.

Photo: Comedy Central