There is this typical ice breaker question that is some variation of “If you could have dinner with anyone famous living or dead, who would it be?” And one of my steadfast answers for almost twenty years has been Stephen Colbert. Through both The Colbert Report and The Late Show, he has given hours upon hours of laughter and more than enough on which to ponder. I feel like we’d have a lot to talk about since we are both unabashed nerds, products of the Palmetto State, and he just seems like a good hang.
Beyond all of that, I appreciate how honestly and humbly Colbert approaches his faith. There have been numerous times over the years when his comedy and conversations take a turn into the spiritual that is challenging and convicting. I remember an episode of The Colbert Report where one minute he was making a joke about Ben Franklin’s predilection for French prostitutes and then organically made his way to the following quote:
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.
Then there are the interviews that he has conducted on The Late Show. Colbert has said that he sort of found the heart of his show when he had a conversation with then-Vice President Biden about grief. Indeed the loss of his father and brothers at a young age has led him to create an empathetic space to explore loss in the midst of celebrities promoting their most recent projects (my mind immediately comes to a conversation that he had with Andrew Garfield about the loss of the actor’s mother).
Those conversations have often turned to Colbert’s faith as well. And you can tell that faith is something that he takes seriously. He seems to wrestle with it and think about it. Take for example this clip in which he is interviewing pop star Dua Lipa and she (at the 3:37 mark) asks Colbert about the relationship between his faith and his comedy:
Colbert says something in that stunning run about how sadness or loss is not a defeat if you can find a way to laugh about it. That faith can help us find these small victories that help put our losses in the context of a bigger picture. That quote was running through my mind as I was watching the final episode of The Late Show and watched as Stephen Colbert wrestled with a literally-rendered black hole that was ending a show that he and so many people loved. There was sadness but there was also laughter; deep honesty about the hurt but also defiant joy in the face of a painful end.
I look forward to seeing what Stephen Colbert does next. I hope that he gets the opportunity to bring laughter and thought to a world that needs his very human, very sacred ministry. From one Sandlapper to another, thank you.