Stephen Colbert’s “Daily Show” reunion couldn’t have come on a better night, as alums of the series took to the air just hours after President Trump fired FBI director James Comey.
It was announced last week that Comedy Central alums Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms and Rob Corddry would join Colbert on CBS’ “Late Show,” and they sure had plenty to talk about.
“That shows no gratitude at all — did Trump forget about the Hillary emails?” Colbert asked in his opening monologue, before diving into a Trump impersonation.
“Thanks for the help, Jimmy, now don’t let the door hit you where the electoral college split you,” he mocked. “I think he was fired because Comey couldn’t guess the name ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’” Colbert continued.
“We’ll have more on this tomorrow when they try to cover this up,” the late-night host predicted.
With the latest Trump news aside, Colbert told the audience that it was “absolutely electric here tonight, it is so incredible to see my old friends from ‘The Daily Show’ … none of us have aged a day.”
Thanks to the magic of TV special effects, Colbert had a flashback to his last day on the “Daily Show” — back in the “crazy” days of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2005.
John Oliver stood in for Steve Carell — complete with “horrible British accent” — despite his “Daily Show” era not crossing over with Colbert’s.
For some reason, Stewart was hiding in the fridge, crying and eating everyone’s yogurts.
Colbert later asked Stewart if he missed doing the show on “nights like this” packed with breaking political news.
“There are nights when I find myself impotently shouting into the abyss — which if you think about it, isn’t much different to what I did on a nightly basis,” Stewart joked.
He added that “in life, people don’t come out and applaud you” when you go out and buy bread.
The former co-stars went on to chat about some of the biggest recent media stories, including Bill O’Reilly and the state of Fox News, and the different standards for comedians and politicians.
Stewart has appeared on “The Late Show” multiple times since leaving “The Daily Show” in 2015. The running gag in the show is that he’s become a Mountain Man who’s grown out his beard and lives in a cabin in the woods, often hanging out with “conservative Stephen Colbert.”
Both Oliver and Bee have moved on to hosting their own shows. Both “Last Week Tonight” and “Full Frontal” take inspiration from “The Daily Show” but have utilized Oliver and Bee’s personalities and unique points of view to stand out.
Helms and Corddry have moved on to successful film and TV careers. Helms is most well-known for “The Hangover” films, while Corddry has made a name for himself on cult shows like “Ballers” and “Children’s Hospital.”
All five previously reunited on Stewart’s “Daily Show” farewell, along with the majority of the correspondents from the show’s history.