Stephen Colbert likens talking about Trump with eating Oreos...

... in a bit — from the new show — that begins with Trump's never-eating-Oreos-again routine.

That was pretty funny... and I'd like it more if the clips were embeddable.

Also, Jeb Bush was on the show. Here's the full episode. Jeb comes in about 10 minutes from the end. I thought Colbert handled it very nicely, even as, at one point, he outright tells Bush that there's no way he'd ever vote for him. That's one way to handle bias. Lay it out there. [CORRECTION: Actually, Colbert said there's "a nonzero chance" he'd vote for Bush. I missed the "non" on first hearing.]

Colbert also pointed out his own brother in the audience and got the brother to shake his head "no" to the question whether he agreed with Colbert politically. Colbert's points were: 1. We can get along and be good with each other even though we don't agree about politics, and 2. Jeb must be different from his brother in some ways too, right? Accepting the invitation to knock his brother, Jeb said that George spent too much money and didn't stay true to the GOP brand: limited government.

Other comments about the show:

1. Lovely filmed opening that began with the national anthem in the setting of a baseball game, proceeding to other places around the country, and ending on the baseball field with the ump saying "Play ball!" [IN THE COMMENTS: Mark says the umpire, whose face we only see in the end when he tears off the mask, was Jon Stewart. That punchline missed me. Looked like a generic grumpy old man.]

2. The band is weak, a bunch of pretty boys. I miss Paul Shaffer. And why did they move the band over to the right? Paul was always on the left. Band on the right is the "Tonight Show" set-up.

3. I was watching the show in the morning, having DVR'd it, because I go to bed early, so I particularly liked the interaction, via TV screen, with Jimmy Fallon, and Colbert demonstrating that he was TIVOing Jimmy's show. The 2 men aren't really in competition in the modern world, and who beats whom is a non-issue in the world of anyone with any technology at all. The old Leno-vs.-Letterman drama is passé.

4. Note the consistent theme of friendship and niceness.

5. George Clooney was the first guest but I jumped over those parts. I can't be sitting around watching television in the morning. I did see that George was looking quite orange, which should have been embarrassing after a couple of jokes, earlier in the show, about Donald Trump's strange orange coloration.

6. Mavis Staples, a good idea for the first guest, but she's not the singer she once was. The song was "Everyday People."  There were a bunch of other singers that we were supposed to recognize, but I couldn't.

7. I don't like to redo tags, as noted yesterday, so Colbert's show remains "The Colbert Report" in the Althouse tags.

"I don't know if David realizes this, but you have the magical mike... this microphone can make me be Little Stevie Wonder again."

Last night on Letterman (via Jaltcoh):



Half a century ago:

Paul Shaffer could have played the role of George Constanza on "Seinfeld."

"In his new book.... [he] reveals he was offered the role of George Costanza before it went to Jason Alexander. Seinfeld handpicked Shaffer for the role and told him, 'There’s no audition ... You’ve got the part. Just call us back!' Shaffer never responded — the music man says he was too busy to accept the role."