Now that The Late Show is coming to an end, here are 7 times Stephen Colbert stirred up controversies as a "joke."
Like most comic TV show hosts, Stephen Colbert is known for his tongue-in-cheek commentary that often leads to controversies and viral moments. One of those moments is also reportedly the reason the show is being cancelled. Here is a rundown of moments where the host of The Late Show was not afraid to voice out his thoughts and opinions.
Racial Tweet Outcry
In 2014, Stephen Colbert came under fire after a racially insensitive tweet was sent from the Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report's Twitter account.
“I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever,”
The joke came out without any context, sparking outrage and the trending Twitter hashtag, #CancelColbert. However, the joke was essentially part of a bit from the March 26 episode where Stephen Colbert made fun of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who at the time established the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation in response to controversy over the team’s name, which many considered to be racist.
In a 12-minute segment, he clarified how he isn't a racist, “When I saw the tweet with no context, I understood how people were offended I don’t even see race, not even my own. People tell me I’m white and I believe them because I just devoted six minutes to explain how I’m not a racist.”
The Suga DUI case

Last year, BTS's Suga had a DUI case, which became quite sensationalised. Stephen Colbert did not miss the opportunity, as in his "What’s Going on Over There?" segment, he poked fun at the situation.
“There is a scandal as Suga from the K-pop boyband BTS has apologised for driving an electric scooter while intoxicated. For which he was not only fined but also had his license revoked.
"Wait a second, wait! Koreans need a license to drive one of these?” He continued, "In New York, you will see them ridden down Broadway by a baby eating a turkey leg.”
Though the studio audience quite enjoyed the joke, Korean Netizens and Armies were not happy, leading to the spread of hate against Colbert on the internet.
Homophobic Donald Trump joke
One of Colbert's favourite victims is Donald Trump, and in this instance, the showrunner was accused of being homophobic. In 2017, he went off on Trump for his treatment of CBS News’ John Dickerson. Both anchors, being a part of the CBS network, came to Dickerson's defence.
"Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla that got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c–k holster.”
The aggressive rant, especially the last comment, led to the internet starting another campaign to cancel the show and him, #FireColbert.
Stephen Colbert stands up for Kristen Stewart

One of Stephen Colbert's more atoning moments was when Kristen Stewart was a guest on the show for her upcoming film Love Lies Bleeding in 2024. In the interview, Stephen Colbert had brought up her recent Rolling Stone cover, which was not well received by conservatives as the actress was topless, besides an open vest.
“Now, before I show this cover, I just want you to know and the audience to know that I think it’s a perfectly lovely cover,” he said. “We were asked by CBS not to show it. They thought it would not be a good idea for us to show this, and I don’t understand why. There’s the cover, right there. I want to say that you look better in a jockstrap than I ever did.”
The overall interaction comforted Stewart in a way that is often known to be a little socially awkward.
Tense exchange with Kevin Hart
In 2019, Kevin Hart was supposed to host the 91st Academy Awards; however, he was soon dropped after the announcement as old tweets from the comedian started resurfacing, where Hart was accused of being homophobic. The controversy lasted for a while, due to which, in his Good Morning America appearance, he stated he was "done with it".
But Stephen Colbert wasn't quite done with it, as in his appearance on The Late Show, Colbert brought it up again, saying,
"I've found that it's not over until the audience is over it. Not when I'm over it," which led to a tense moment between the two.
Kevin concluded by saying, "At some point you just have to be okay with you. I'm okay with me and all the decisions I've made in my life. This is the decision I've made to say: 'I'm over it'."
Stephen Colbert clashes with Jon Stewart
In 2021, when the show came back after the pandemic, Jon Stewart was invited as a guest. During the segment, the two talk show hosts butted heads over the origin of the coronavirus and the Wuhan Covid-19 Lab-Leak Theory.
Colbert brought it up by questioning him, “Do you mean perhaps there’s a chance that this was created in a lab?”
“A chance?” Stewart responded. “Oh my god, there’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab. That’s just a little too weird!”
Stephen retorted, "It could be possible that they have the lab in Wuhan to study the novel coronavirus diseases because in Wuhan there are a lot of coronavirus diseases because of the bat population there.”
However, Jon concluded, "I have been alone so long. And when I realized that the laboratory was having the same name—first name and last name—of the evil that had been plaguing us, I thought to myself, that’s f*cked up."
The entire conversation left the audience and fans confused, as apparently Jon Stewart is not known to make a strong stand unless there is clear factual evidence.
The cancellation of The Late Show

Last but not least would be the controversy that may have been the reason that the beloved late-night show got cancelled. Though CBS stated the reason to be financial pressures, speculation reveals that it was the comments made by the host.
This mostly stems from the fact that the timing is quite odd, as two weeks before the announcement, CBS's parent company, Paramount, settled a $16 million lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News.
Stephen Colbert in his own way spoke up about it, calling the settlement a big fat bribe,” on air. While debuting his new summer 'stache, he also obliterated both Trump and the company in the same monologue,
After the cancellation was announced, he went ahead and stated,
"I delivered a blistering monologue during which I had the courage to have a mustache. CBS saw my upper lip, and Boom! Canceled! Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is 'stache-ism."
Since then, most major talk show hosts, including both Jimmys, Kimmel and Fallon, Seth Meyers and more, have come forward in solidarity with Stephen Colbert and the future of late-night shows