Stephen Colbert on Coke Ad: ‘Since When Are Gays Allowed to Gay Up’ a Song Written by a Lesbian? (Video)

The 60-second spot had conservative viewers up in arms for not only featuring “America the Beautiful” sung in eight different languages, but openly gay parents

Stephen Colbert weighed in on Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl commercial featuring a multi-lingual rendition of “America the Beautiful,” as well as a pair of openly gay parents, and said no one would be more offended than the gay woman who wrote the lyrics in 1895.

“For Pete’s sake! Since when are gays allowed to gay up ‘America the Beautiful’?” Colbert asked during “The Colbert Report” on Tuesday. “If the woman who wrote this song, Katharine Lee Bates, saw this ad, she would be disgusted. And so would her life partner, Katharine Coman, with whom she lived for 25 years in what was then referred to as a ‘Boston marriage.’”

Also read: Coca Cola’s ‘It’s Beautiful’ Ad Proves Some Americans Still Can’t Recognize the Beauty of Diversity (Video)

Colbert joined the boycott against the company by “officially removing Coca-Cola from the all-American meal,” of which the sugary beverage was classified in as “a vegetable.”

His satirical response was a reaction to Breitbart columnist Michael Leahy, who wrote a column explaining “Why Coca Cola’s Multicultural ‘America the Beautiful’ Ad Was Offensive.”

“When the company used such an iconic song, one often sung in churches on the 4th of July that represents the old ‘E Pluribus Unum’ view of how American society is integrated, to push multiculturalism down our throats,  it’s no wonder conservatives were outraged,” Leahy wrote.

“Yes, the old ‘E Pluribus Unum,’” Colbert said. “That’s Latin for ‘Speaka da English.”

It’s actually Latin for “Out of many, one.” Because, you know, out of the many languages spoken in America by its many multicultural citizens, we still stand united as Americans.

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