Intellectual property law may prevent Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report from appearing on The Late Show, but it can not stop his identical twin cousin.
Advertisement
Colbert said corporate lawyers “from another network” got involved after the “Colbert Report” host popped up on “The Late Show” during the RNC last week, claiming the character was the intellectual property of, presumably, Comedy Central.
“What can I do?” he continued.
Just add in Colbert’s new segment, “The Werd”, and you’ve got a bit unique and fun enough to get past the corporate lawyers.
“Which, is surprising, because I never thought of that guy as much of an intellectual”. Well Colbert’s mother was an identical twin and she and her sister married identical twins and gave birth at the same time and both named their sons Stephen Colbert.
We’ll have to see how this whole legal drama plays out, but even if the Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report is no more, at least we still have Stephen Colbert and Stephen Colbert. With that, the host made a decision to end the segment with “The Werd”, a tongue-in-cheek iteration of The Colbert Report’s “The Word”.
The new character insisted he was “totally different” from his cousin who hosted the Colbert Report for a decade. He didn’t need to say the name of that corporation: Comedy Central parent company Viacom.
Colbert likely thought he was done feuding with Viacom after leaving his Comedy Central show.
But Colbert previously told THR that he saw his old character as a “tool” to be used judiciously, indicating he didn’t want to overdo it with appearances from the popular Colbert Report host.
“Hopefully [the audience] won’t be like, ‘Huh?” Wasn’t that 18 months ago?
“If you’re a supporter of Bernie, you should be proud”, he said.
Advertisement
How did Colbert react to his old character’s death?
