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Stephen Colbert Makes Amends the Only Way He Knows How: With Over-the-Top Tongue-in-Cheek Offensiveness

By Vivian Kane | Videos | April 2, 2014 |

By Vivian Kane | Videos | April 2, 2014 |


Unless you spent the last week on a camping trip on the moon, you’ve no doubt heard about the Stephen Colbert Twitter… what’s in between a scandal and a nothing? It’s that. Closer to the ‘nothing’ though. Last week the Colbert Report Twitter account (which is not run by Colbert or, for that matter, anyone at his show) tweeted a joke from that night’s show that, out of context, was really dumb and racist.

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Immediately, a bunch of people who weren’t personally offended (and some that definitely were! but most who were not), they just hated the show anyway and found a temporary sounding board, started the #CancelColbert campaign. Because as we all know, if you want to get something done in this world, start a hashtag.

Last night, Colbert finally spoke out about the campaign, and about his new “foundation,” which he’ll be shutting down, at the expense of his one Asian employee, James.



It’s also important to note that the Colbert Report Twitter account (again, not run by anyone at the show) has been shut down. There’s been a lot of talk of people overreacting to the initial tweet, and it being out of context. But here’s the thing, while the joke on the show was funny, that was a really dumb, shitty thing to take out of context. It made no sense and it WAS offensive. Not as offensive, maybe as the actual foundation that Colbert was skewering, Daniel Snyder’s Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. Which, as Stephen said, “Twitter seems to be fine with because I haven’t seen shit about that.” But offensive and dumb nonetheless.