Ricky Gervais returned to The Late Show on Thursday night and Stephen Colbert wasted little time bringing up the last time The Office star was on the show. Faith clashed with fact in a spirited debate on religion between the very Catholic Colbert and the Atheist Gervais, something they both couldn’t seem to wait to do again this time around. While it wasn’t anything like the first time and paled in comparison to Colbert’s obscenity-filled run in with Bill Maher. But they do debate which of them will be heading to Hell the fastest, who is the only guaranteed entry into Heaven, and the status of Jesus as “the bedrock of western civilization.”
The interesting part doesn’t come until later in the interview when Colbert pulls out something Gervais seems to hate more than religion: Tolkien and The Lord Of The Rings. While talking about Gervais’ time in Reykjavik, Colbert tosses out that the folks in Iceland believe in elves and will build their roads with elven homes in mind. It’s this moment where Tolkien comes up and Gervais hits a wall. He’s not a fan of “nonsense,” which Colbert can’t believe because Tolkien is fantasy and it’s supposed to be fun.
“What’s wrong with nonsense? Does everything have to be real to you?”
This forces Gervais to return to the debate and award Colbert a slight victory. If nonsense is in, so is religion apparently and all the wine a man can drink while calling it the blood of Christ. It’s almost more of a shock that he hates hobbits and their large testicles but we can live with that moment where Gervais says he is a Catholic.
(Via The Late Show)
