Stephen Colbert Promises That He Knows They’re Called Light Sabers

It is strange to think that even uber nerd Stephen Colbert manages to commit a geeky faux pas, but even the best of us fly a little too close to the sun sometimes. When he got the opportunity to meet George Lucas, the creator and destroyer of Star Wars, for his Green Screen Challenge in 2006, Colbert used Lucas’s preferred nomenclature, laser swords, when referring to the iconic lightsabers. However, Lucas saw this as Colbert exposing his fake geek underbelly and corrected him, and Colbert never had the chance to rectify this misunderstanding.

Well, when discussing the new Japanese trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Colbert took the opportunity to clear things up. He may have whiffed it while meeting a geek hero, but Colbert made it very clear that of course he knows it’s called a light saber. Sure, although his inner fan may have taken a hit in 2006, the Colbert of today clearly still wears a King of the Nerds crown.