Five Reasons Why Stephen Colbert Will Be A Great Late Night Host

Earlier today, CBS announced that the new host of its late night show following David Letterman’s retirement in 2015 will be Stephen Colbert. It was perhaps Hollywood’s worst kept secret of the week — while other intriguing names were raised (Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Louis CK’s bid for fact to emulate fiction), those in the know were calling Colbert a lock for the job days ago.

Still, some are bemused by the announcement, and perhaps with reason. Colbert’s spent the past nine years in satirical mode, acting out the epitome of the conservative blowhard in over 1300 episodes of The Colbert Report (“Maybe the single greatest comedic character ever built on TV,” writes Vulture’s Jesse David Fox). We’ve only caught fleeting glimpses of his real-life personality in the show, mainly during interview bits where his genuine enthusiasm sometimes saw him break character. It’s difficult to know how he’ll approach his new gig without the guise. “I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me. I’m looking forward to it,” said Colbert in a press release this morning.

The signs are promising if you look back on Colbert’s career to date. Going back to his time on the cult gem Strangers With Candy, he’s shown a knack for the kinda oddball absurdism that used to be a staple on late night TV (see: early Conan), but has since been overrun by guys chasing online relevance with cute and snarky viral videos.

“He’s done an amazing job with just that very narrow cast of character, but he’s got a lot more he can show,” said Jon Stewart, in an interview with Vulture this morning. “He’s got some skill sets that are really applicable, interviewing-wise, but also he’s a really, really good actor and also an excellent improvisational comedian.”

Good reference, Jon Stewart. Let’s look back at some examples that highlight why Colbert’s selection makes sense…

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Ace in the The Ambiguously Gay Duo

One of Colbert’s earliest successes was as a writer/performer on the short-running, The Dana Carvey Show (1996). It was here that he lent his vocal talents to Robert Smigel’s (TV Funhouse) cartoon superhero spoof The Ambiguously Gay Duo, which later became a recurring bit on SNL. With Fallon’s milquetoast niceness ruling the timeslot at the moment, it’ll be good to have a late night host who’s not afraid to push the envelope (even if it is with ‘penis vehicles’).

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Chuck Noblet in Strangers With Candy

Colbert’s most prominent role before hitting his political stride was in Strangers With Candy, Amy Sedaris’s brilliantly bizarre spoof of after-school specials. Colbert showed off his affinity for absurdity as the tragic Chuck Noblet, a sadly married history teacher, whose closeted love affair with arts teacher Geoffrey (“It’s pronounced Joffrey!”) Jellineck remains one of the most heartwrenching romances ever shown on TV. Let’s hope he brings this offbeat sensibility to the Late Show. Late night TV needs something more than prank videos and rap spoofs.

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Stephen Colbert in The Daily Show

Colbert joined The Daily Show in 1997 (the show’s second season), back when Craig Kilborn was its host and Jon Stewart was still wearing ripped denim on MTV. He became a regular correspondent and an audience favourite with his remote spots, combative interviews and in-studio mischief with Stewart, who took over hosting duties in ’99. He showed hints of his later incarnation as a right-wing yell-y pundit, playing the world’s most annoyingly wrong-but-loud news reporter, and launching excellent recurring bits like his ‘This Week In God’, which was easily funnier than ‘Headlines’.

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Stephen Colbert in ‘The George W. Bush Roast’

Remember that time he mocked George W. Bush mercilessly, right to his face, at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner? That was pretty great. I can’t imagine anyone being less interested in stroking celebrity egos than David Letterman, but Colbert’s probably the closest.

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‘Stephen Colbert’ in The Colbert Report

Over nine seasons in his restrictive satirical guise, Colbert’s still somehow managed to showcase how versatile he can be, from daily political discussions, to coining much-analysed concepts like ‘truthiness’ (Merriam-Webster’s ‘Word Of The Year’ in 2005), to crafting goofier bits like that time he got Henry Kissinger to introduce a guitar battle against The Decemberists or that time Daft Punk cancelled on him and he threw a party anyway.

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I’m pretty excited about this whole thing already. I just hope he hires Jerri Blank as his Paul Shaffer.