On its 25th anniversary, The Daily Show's creators are looking back on how Stephen Colbert made the jump from real news to fake news.
The iconic Comedy Central series celebrates its 25th anniversary Thursday, and creators Madeleine Smithberg and Lizz Winstead delved into its origins in an interview with The New York Times. Among the details they discussed was hiring Colbert as a correspondent based on seeing his subtly funny work on Good Morning America.
"I saw Colbert doing pieces on Good Morning America as a correspondent, and I was like, 'He is saying some things that nobody is catching that are really funny, and it feels like he is playing a correspondent," Winstead said. "He should be on The Daily Show. I went to Madeleine and I said, 'I don't know that GMA understands how funny he is, and we should steal him."
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.
Colbert's GMA stint was brief, but a segment from 1997 featuring him reporting on a Rube Goldberg machine competition is available on YouTube. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this was the only one of Colbert's segments to ever make it to air. He would go on to be such a hit on The Daily Show that he'd get his own spinoff, The Colbert Report, which eventually led him to his current gig on The Late Show. Of course, Colbert was far from the only comedian to become a major star thanks to The Daily Show.
"After four or five months, I called back Mike August at William Morris, and I go, 'Do you have another one like Stephen Colbert?'" Smithberg recalled to the Times. "And he goes, 'As a matter of fact, I do: It's his best friend and writing partner Steve Carell.' So I go, 'OK, when can he start?'" And the rest, as they say, is history.
-
China and Taiwan's war of words ahead of anniversary paradeUnder The Radar Neighbours both claim to have led the fighting during World War Two
-
Epstein files: Maxwell courts a pardonFeature A new prison transcript shows Ghislaine Maxwell praising Trump as 'a gentleman' while denying his involvement in the Epstein scandal
-
Pentagon readies military deployment in ChicagoFeature The Pentagon is preparing to deploy thousands of Illinois National Guard members to Chicago after Trump threatened to send troops into other major cities
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed 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 illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed 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 viewSpeed 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 talkSpeed 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
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
