We are on stage (checks math) six of the backlash to Michelle Wolfâs speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner? Itâs hard to keep track. The point is, after making some extremely appropriate and well-tuned jokes about our dumb administration and media apparatus, Wolf has been under siege by faux-outraged Republicans, leading to 1) a completely spineless railroading by the White House Correspondents Association itself, and 2) a flood of support from fellow comedians. Last night her old boss Seth Meyers went to the mat for her, Dave Chappelle has said she ânailed it,â and Jimmy Kimmel and Kathy Griffin have also offered words of support. Wolf has also, of course, ably âdefendedâ herself, as much as a comedian who did comedy things needs to be defended.
But Stephen Colbert, sensing a fellow comedian in need, had to call in the big guns. While others merely said words, Colbert went one step further, and brought out ... Stephen Colbert. With eyebrow arched, glasses on, and falcons of liberty screaming overhead, the acclaimed host of the 2006 Correspondents Dinner decided to âpump it down the truth hole,â fitting in some Kanye jokes while he âstevesplainedâ everything Wolf did wrong. âHow dare you besmirch the okay name of Sarah Huckabee Sanders?â Colbertâs rightwing avatar cried, before ending things with a well-timed plug for Wolfâs new Netflix show (The Break With Michelle Wolf, premiering May 27).
When it was all over, the real Colbert reemerged as if from a fugue state. Itâs good to see that, even as his Late Show handily trounces Jimmy Fallonâs toothless Tonight Show, Colbertâs still got his Colbert eyebrow muscles in good working order.
Hereâs his own legendary hosting stint from 2006, by the way:
