‘Stephen Colbert’ character talks Bill O’Reilly exit on The Late Show
From the beginning of his run on Comedy Central, the “Colbert” persona was meant to be a send-up of O’Reilly and The O’Reilly Factor. He spoofed some of his segments, and often referred to Bill as “Papa Bear.” O’Reilly did have a few exchanges with Stephen during his run, and the two parties did have some sort of rapport.
Tonight on The Late Show, Colbert is bringing the Colbert character back to talk about the exit of O’Reilly, and it may be fair to say that he goes far out of his way to eviscerate him. This is pretty bold to have this level of sarcasm and satire on network TV, but we also have to say that it’s pretty hilarious. “Colbert” encourages Bill to stand strong, but it’s all pretty tongue-in-cheek as Colbert himself has made his thoughts on the situation pretty clear. (He also offers to “milk” O’Reilly at Jon Stewart’s farm.)
Following the dismissal from Fox News, which really took longer to make their decision than any other cable network likely would have, we have a pretty hard time envisioning that any other network is going to be willing to give him a whole lot of TV time. He’ll probably be mocked on a few late-night shows over the next week, and then drift off into the ether somewhere unless some sort of conservative subscription service, one that doesn’t rely on advertisers, chooses to pick him up.
What do you think about how “Stephen” chose to address O’Reilly on tonight’s show? Do you think that it was unavoidable for him to do so all things considered? Share in the comments below!
Meanwhile, you can read O’Reilly’s statement about departing the series over at the link here. (Photo: CBS.)