Brow Beat

Stephen Colbert Officially Retired “Stephen Colbert” Because Corporate Lawyers Made Him

The world rejoiced recently when Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show, brought back “Stephen Colbert,” beloved host of The Colbert Report, to cover the Republican National Convention alongside Jon Stewart.* Viacom, parent company of Colbert’s old stomping grounds Comedy Central, on the other hand, did not. Instead, as the host put it on Wednesday evening, Viacom’s corporate lawyers contacted CBS’ corporate lawyers to claim “Colbert” as their intellectual property. “[It’s] surprising,” he said, “because I never considered that guy much of an intellectual.”

True to form, Colbert struck back at the powers that be with impish defiance, bringing “Stephen Colbert’s” “identical twin cousin,” “Stephen Colbert.” This guy, of course, wasn’t the same “Colbert” Viacom is upset about—he’s a “totally different guy.” He also brought out a new segment, “The Werd”—not, to be sure, “The Word”—to parse voters’ reluctance to choose between Trump and Hillary, or, in Colbert/”Colbert” parlance: “The Evil of Two Lessers.”

*Correction, July 28, 2016: This post originally misidentified the name of Colbert’s previous TV show. It was The Colbert Report.