On Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert brought some of his former Daily Show colleagues on the Late Show to talk about old times.
Colbert was joined by former Daily Show host Jon Stewart along with Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms and Rob Corddry.
Controversy has surrounded Colbert since last week when he told a controversial oral sex joke about U.S. President Donald Trump that led to a #FireColbert campaign on Twitter.
READ MORE: Stephen Colbert says he doesn’t regret Trump jokes that led to #FireColbert
Last night’s reunion also comes on the heels of FCC chairman Ajit Pai stating that his agency will be looking into complaints made against Colbert for what some labeled a homophobic joke.
Colbert’s old friends sat down with him to discuss how the business of making jokes has changed since they were all doing it together on the Daily Show more than a decade ago.
Stewart sat down with Colbert first and as he walked on stage, he told the audience that he’s “not comfortable here.”
When Colbert asked him why, Stewart told him that he’s been reading about him in the news.
Stewart continued by calling out Colbert’s “potty mouth.”
READ MORE: Stephen Colbert in hot water with FCC over ‘homophobic’ Trump joke
“That I do,” Colbert admitted. “But might I say, I learned it from you, dad.”
Colbert mentioned that Stewart has a farm in New Jersey now, and he asked, “On a night like this, when James Comey has just been fired, do you miss, you know, doing a show like this? Because you used to, you know, talk about bullsh*t. Now you literally shovel it.”
“There are nights where I find myself sort of impotently shouting into the abyss, which if you think about it, wasn’t that different from what I did on a nightly basis,” Stewart responded.
Stewart continued to mention the controversies surrounding Colbert.
“The things you say, even if they’re crass or even if they are in some ways not respectful enough to the office of the presidency, we can insult, he can injure,” Stewart told Colbert.
Stewart continued: “It’s the difference between insult and injury. And for the life of me I do not understand why in this country we try to hold comedians to a standard we do not hold leaders to. It’s bizarre.”
READ MORE: Jon Stewart returns to Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ to slam Donald Trump
Colbert took a trip down memory lane to his last day working at The Daily Show. “I can’t put it into words, but I can put it into flashback,” he joked before playing the sketch of himself and his colleagues back in summer of 2005.
“There comes a time when a man has to do something completely different,” he said to himself. “The same character, half an hour later, half a block away. Courage.”
WATCH BELOW: Samantha Bee on George W. Bush in flashback to Colbert’s last day at Daily Show
As Colbert packed up his lucky Steve Carell mug and tangerine iBook, Bee walked in, completely shocked that her colleague was leaving during George W. Bush’s presidency.
“There’s never gonna be another president this good for comedy,” she joked. “I mean, this guy does something ridiculous at least once a month. I know there’s one thing for sure — there’s no scenario under which I will ever say, ‘God, I wish George W. Bush was president.’”
“I can’t believe you’re leaving us, Stephen, it’s crazy,” Helms added. “It’s like Beyoncé leaving Destiny’s Child. We’re never going to hear from her again.”
“We’re fighting over which one of us gets your office,” Corddry said. “I’m all ready to hang up my poster of my two favourite comedians: Bill Cosby and Subway spokesman Jared Fogle.”
The group also participated in a two-part interview, which was packed with clips from some of their earliest Daily Show pieces.
“This arrangement that we have right now is exactly something we would have made fun of on the Daily Show,” Colbert said. “It looks fake. It looks like a morning show right now.”
Watch part of the reunion in the videos above.
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