Tonight, after months of build-up, we finally bid adieu to The Colbert Report. While we've known this day was coming since the Late Show announcement last spring, it's still been tough news to swallow. But on the eve Stephen Colbert's final appearance on Comedy Central, I'm beginning to think we don't have much to worry about.
Not only was Colbert one of the funniest cable comedies of all time, it transcended its format to become an indelible fixture of the American left. It's a cliché to say that young Americans get their news, not from MSNBC or FOX News, but from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's evisceration of those network's tireless sensationalism and recyclable talking heads. But it's also true. The lovable right wing blowhard that Colbert first created on The Daily Show has surpassed his former boss's ability to skewer America's broken political system. It's the fear that we might lose Colbert's voice—not that we're losing exemplary entertainment—that's worrisome to politics junkies and fans alike. But maybe Colbert's ascension to CBS isn't a loss for the left, but a victory for progressives everywhere.
In the past, Late Show and Tonight hosts have played their politics with relative impartiality. We all knew that Conan and even Leno were liberals. Fallon is too, as is Kimmel, despite his Man Show past and regular-guy schtick. But those hosts never let their politics become the center of the conversation. Likewise, Letterman may be the most openly partisan of the bunch, but there's still a veneer of centrism to his show, however thin (and getting thinner) it may be. But will that still be the case when Colbert takes his seat? I just don't see it happening—at least not in the way it has in the past.
While I can't say what the tone of Colbert's late show will be, we do know that the "Stephen Colbert" of The Report will be no more. After nearly 1,500 episodes, nine years, and hardly a break in character, it makes sense that Colbert would want to retire the persona. He's said as much. No satirist in history has ever managed a feat quite like Colbert and it's hard to imagine anyone repeating his performance.
But even as we say goodbye to "Stephen Colbert," the man behind the character isn't going anywhere but to a wider audience. Unlike Letterman or Leno or Fallon, Colbert is inexorably tied to his political persona. He's a political animal—and not of the elephant variety. It's what made him who he is; it's what he built his career on. And, more importantly, it's what he cares most deeply about.
While Leno and Letterman came from a world of observational standup comedy and Conan's humor is centered on the cult of CoCo, what is Colbert if not a political comedian? This is a guy who stood with Jon Stewart at the National Mall in 2010 with his Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, eviscerated Bush at a White House Correspondents' Dinner, and just last week happily stood aside as President Obama took over his show. America won't forget a decade of tirelessly ribbing the right. We've already seen too much.
Still, Colbert doesn't openly talk politics without the veil of comedy. The New York Times described the "real" Colbert as "a practicing Catholic, who lives with his wife and three children in suburban Montclair, N.J., where, according to one of his neighbors, he is 'extremely normal.'" Last year Colbert talked about the benefit of keeping his views hidden: "I'm not trying to make a point; I'm trying to make a joke. Sometimes my personal views are what I am saying, but it is important to me that you never know when that is," he said at the Emmys.
Still, it's pretty clear where the man stands. Rush Limbaugh, for one, certainly knows, pontificating that "CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America. No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values, conservatives." So what will Colbert's Late Night actually look like? No doubt the humor will be broader, the jokes less pointed, and the barbs blunted. He'll probably spend more time talking about Miley Cyrus and less time dumping on Republican immigration policy. But I'm also willing to bet he doesn't shy away from politics, nor hide his opinions.
With Colbert, CBS knows who they're getting, and they know what he stands for. Colbert can't pretend not to be partisan—it's not in his nature. So rather than lose a voice of sanity, hopefully we're just giving it a bigger soapbox. There are still folks out there unexposed to Colbert's humor—many of them voters. For once, I'm in agreement with Limbaugh: "What this hire means is a redefinition of what is funny and a redefinition of what is comedy." Colbert may not be the Late Show host that we deserve, but he might be the one we need.
Nathan Reese is a News Editor at Complex. He tweets here.
