Stephen Colbert's Super Bowl special has its own heartwarming fake ad, NFL player gags, Metallica

Stephen Colbert followed Super Bowl LV with a special Sunday night Late Show. "Like everything during the pandemic, the game was a lot different this year," he said in a rare politics-free monologue. "There were cardboard cutouts in the stands, players had to quarantine, and instead of Gatorade, the winning coach was doused with hand sanitizer."

Colbert may not be the world's biggest football fan most hours of the year, but he said he really likes the player intros. Still, "I really feel like these intros lack the pizzazz that the players in the big game deserve, and I thought, what if famous directors shot these intros instead?" he said. "Can you imagine? Well, if you can, stop it. This is TV. We do the imagining for you." The players were from the New York Giants and Jets, not the Chiefs and Buccaneers, but The Late Show nailed the Scorsese, Warner Herzog, and Wes Anderson intros.

YouTube

Watch On

The Late Show did get players in this year's Super Bowl to suggest some rule changes.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up

And Colbert's team created its own public service announcement about watching the Super Bowl alone. It ended up being kind of touching.

YouTube

Watch On

Colbert's post-Super Bowl musical guest was Metallica, and they played their biggest hit, which also served as the theme song for Mariano Rivera, the legendary former closer for the New York Yankees. It works fine for football, too. Peter Weber