Stephen Colbert arrives carrying both the satisfaction of an Emmy win and the noticeably lighter demeanor of someone no longer required to immerse himself in the news every day. His comparison of hosting a late-night show to being lowered like a carbon rod into a radioactive pool is an especially effective description of the exhausting rhythm he remembers. Jimmy Kimmel keeps the conversation playful rather than retrospective or melancholy, and the photograph of Colbert, Jon Stewart and John Oliver reacting to being called the “endangered table” neatly captures the strange position these longtime hosts find themselves in.
The warmest stretch comes from Colbert discussing his wife, Evie, after replaying part of his acceptance speech. His declaration that hers is the laugh he wants for the rest of his life gives Kimmel an easy setup for jokes about having inadequately thanked his own wife, but the affection never feels sacrificed for the punchline. Their discussion of Colbert’s beard extends that domestic material nicely: Evie dislikes it, the number of kisses has supposedly fallen, and Colbert promised to shave if he won the Emmy. Turning that promise into an on-air shave gives the interview a simple running storyline rather than leaving it as a succession of unrelated anecdotes.
Colbert and Kimmel are particularly entertaining when reminiscing about events they attended together. Kimmel spilling red wine on Colbert’s tan suit before Colbert intended to wear it to the Obama Presidential Center opening becomes funnier because the suit survived and ultimately served its intended joke. Colbert’s account of getting severely sunburned at the event is similarly built around self-deprecation, including Conan O’Brien expressing concern and Tom Hanks comparing his appearance to someone sent into a reactor core. The abundance of famous names occasionally makes this section resemble celebrity name-dropping, but Colbert generally gives each encounter a comic purpose.
His current work in New Zealand provides the interview with more substance than a standard post-awards appearance. Colbert says he is writing a new Lord of the Rings movie with his son Peter McGee and Philippa Boyens, describing himself as the obsessive Tolkien enthusiast while conceding that his son understands screenwriting and the deeper lore better than he does. The story about refusing to reveal details to Steven Spielberg because of confidentiality obligations is amusing precisely because Colbert realizes afterward that Spielberg might have contributed a useful idea. It also conveys his genuine excitement at unexpectedly having time for a project he had begun well before his television show ended.
The New Zealand traffic-stop story is considerably more elaborate. Colbert describes being pulled over for speeding and uses a phone call with his son John to recreate the encounter with the extremely polite “Officer Speedwork.” The extended imitation produces several good linguistic misunderstandings involving speed work, demerit points and the breath test, although the bit runs long enough that its central joke—an unusually friendly officer issuing a perfectly real ticket—is established well before the recreation ends. It remains enjoyable largely because Colbert commits completely to the character and Kimmel lets the story develop without fighting for attention.
The closing gift provides an unexpectedly fitting emotional payoff. Colbert explains that Marvel once gave him a Captain America shield associated with his Colbert Report persona, and that it remained on his set for roughly two decades before he chose to send it to Kimmel as the set was dismantled. Kimmel permanently mounting the shield where he can see it during his monologues turns an entertaining celebrity interview into something more personal: a physical piece of one late-night show being passed to another host. After all the jokes about cancellation, unemployment, awards and beard hair, that gesture supplies the conversation with a graceful sense of continuity.
Pros
- Colbert and Kimmel's longstanding familiarity creates relaxed banter without requiring heavily structured interview questions.
- The Emmy discussion balances jokes about late-night television's uncertain circumstances with genuine affection for Colbert's wife and colleagues.
- Colbert's Lord of the Rings writing project introduces substantial new material and conveys his enthusiasm for collaborating with his son.
- The beard shave gives the appearance a simple visual running gag that develops naturally from Colbert's Emmy promise.
- Passing the Captain America shield from Colbert's former set to Kimmel's provides a memorable and surprisingly meaningful conclusion.
Cons
- The extended New Zealand traffic-stop recreation stretches a relatively simple anecdote considerably beyond its initial setup.
- The middle portion moves through numerous celebrity encounters and private-event stories, occasionally giving the conversation a name-dropping quality.
- Several potentially interesting subjects, particularly Colbert's transition away from daily late-night television and his screenwriting process, receive less exploration than the lighter anecdotes.
Colbert's combination of self-deprecation, storytelling and obvious relief makes this an unusually relaxed appearance, while his easy chemistry with Kimmel keeps even the more indulgent anecdotes entertaining. The Captain America shield ultimately gives all the joking about the end of one chapter a genuinely satisfying symbol of late-night continuity.
