Stephen Colbert demonstrates how the Yo smartphone app would work in real life

Stephen Colbert demonstrates how the Yo smartphone app would work in real life
(Image credit: Colbert Report)

This week the internet world became acquainted with Yo, an improbably hot new smartphone app that lets uses send each other only that single two-letter message — or, as Stephen Colbert described it on Thursday night's Colbert Report, an "app that has expanded the possibilities for communication by greatly reducing them." Sure, Yo is easy to mock (it's "already hugely popular with the world's population of Sylvester Stallone," Colbert quipped), but its founders promise that you can say a lot with just the word Yo, depending on context.

Well, why not bring Yo's "context-based communication philosophy in everyday life?" Colbert asked. So he tried it out with Jay the intern. Their conversation is funny; the ending is brilliant. --Peter Weber

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.