In case you hadn’t heard, Bill O’Reilly is having a hell of a bad week. After decades of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, Fox News officially cut ties with O’Reilly after scores of advertisers pulled their funding. No one seems particularly sad to see O’Reilly lose his spot (except for President Trump), especially the gleeful host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert. While calling the former Fox host “a self-righteous landfill of angry garbage,” Colbert also acknowledged that O’Reilly was his inspiration for a decade of The Colbert Report.
That twisted appreciation manifested in Colbert breaking out his pompous conservative pundit alter ego out for a proper farewell. In a “live stream” from the cabin in the mountains that he shares with Jon Stewart and some goats, “Colbert” decided that the best way to respond was to scold America for letting Papa Bear down.
“Hello, nation. Shame on you. You failed him. You failed Bill O’Reilly. You didn’t deserve this great man. All he ever did was have your back. And if you’re a woman, you know, have a go at the front, too.”
“Colbert” went on to address the sexual harassment claims in a sly indictment that will make you miss The Colbert Report even more than you already did.
“And so what? Suddenly, sexual harassment’s a crime? That’s the country we live in now: Obama’s Trump’s America. I guess I always knew this day would come. When I first saw Bill on TV, I knew in my heart that no one could possibly sustain such a broad character for that long.”
The choked back sob was just the icing on a perfectly satirical cake. This certainly wasn’t the first time that Colbert has brought out his alter ego from retirement, and hopefully it’s not the last. However, with the last nail in the coffin of O’Reilly’s television career, “Colbert” may have ultimately fulfilled his purpose.
(Via The Late Show)
