STEPHEN COLBERT
“Am I still the host? I’m still the host!” Stephen Colbert proclaimed at the start of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Wednesday night.
The Montclair resident was responding, of course, to the #FireColbert movement that sprang up on Tuesday after he insulted President Trump, on Monday’s show, by saying “the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.” (The last two words were bleeped out on television, and heard only by the studio audience).
“If you saw my monologue on Monday,” said Colbert on Wednesday’s show, “you know that I was a little upset with Donald Trump for insulting a friend of mine (John Dickerson of ‘Face the Nation’). So, at the end of that monologue, I had a few choice insults for the President, in return.
“I don’t regret that. I believe he can take care of himself. I have jokes, he has the launch codes …”
“So while I would do it again, I would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be. Now, I’m not going to repeat the phrase. I’m just going to say, for the record, that life is short, and anyone who expresses their love for another person, in their own way, is, to me, an American hero. And I think we can all agree on that. I hope even the President and I can agree on that. Nothing else, but that.”
Colbert’s first guest on Wednesday was actor Jim Parsons (of “The Big Bang Theory”), who is gay.
“So you weren’t fired,” Parsons said as they started to talk.
“Are you feeling homophobic?” Parsons then asked, jokingly referring to the suggestion by some Colbert critics that the “cock holster” phrase amounted to a homophobic slur.
“No, actually I’m feeling homophilic,” Colbert said.
“I thought that was a very strange tag to put on the whole monologue,” said Parsons. “I thought, ‘That’s not homophobic. You taught me new terms.’ As a gay man, I didn’t know certain things … It’s titillating. I wouldn’t call it homophobic.”
“You’re welcome,” Colbert deadpanned.
