Watch Stephen Colbert wrestle with covering mass shootings like Oregon's on late-night comedy


"I want to talk about pretending," Stephen Colbert said at the beginning of Friday's Late Show. He noted that he famously pretended to play a certain person on late-night TV for a decade, then said that now he's pretending to know what he's doing as himself, he's not sure how to talk about the day's big news when the day's big news is a mass shooting like the one that happened in Roseburg, Oregon. "In the face of the killings in Oregon yesterday, I honestly don't know what to do or say, other than that our hearts are broken for those struck by this senseless tragedy," he began.
"I can't pretend that it didn't happen," Colbert explained. "I also can't pretend to know what to do to prevent what happened yesterday all the times it has happened before. But I think pretending is part of the problem. These things happen over and over again, and we are naturally horrified and shocked when we hear about them. But then we change nothing, and we pretend that it won't happen again." He doesn't know what the solution is, he added, "but I do know that one of the definitions of insanity is doing nothing and then pretending that nothing will change."
And then the show went on. "Speaking of honest insanity, Donald Trump," Colbert said, taking to heart Trump's advice to stop the pretending about politics. He started with Trump's "0 percent" chance of being elected president and went on to discuss the House Benghazi committee gaffe from would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Watch below and you will never look at McCarthy challenger Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) without thinking "seductive beaver mascot" again. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly Tuttle
Feature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"
-
Film reviews: Eden and Honey Don't!
Feature Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery and a queer private eye prowls a high-desert town
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitions
Feature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle