As most late night TV lovers know, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have developed a feud over who is responsible for Mike Huckabee's popularity in the presidential race. It's been a long, involved story, with each guy claiming that they "made" Huckabee and bashing each other back on forth. Well, Monday night was truly spectacular, because the world got to see the feud reach its climax, in the form of a conflict that crossed over The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Late Night. With the three hosts appearing on each others' shows all on one night, it was special appearances galore. It became a clash of the Titans, a battle of epic proportions, a heaping helping of Monday fanservice --
Goodness, for a minute there, I lost myself. Should I be worried by how overjoyed I was (and kind of still am)?
As a huge fan of all three programs, I was, needless to say, filled with joy for the entire evening. First up was The Daily Show, which I recapped in detail. In the middle of a seemingly normal show, Colbert and O'Brien popped up and prepped for some hardcore fighting.
Stewart made them wait outside as he wrapped up his own show, but by the time he met up with O'Brien, Colbert had scampered off to do The Colbert Report. Much to the delight of the rabid Report audience, Stewart and O'Brien showed up and tried to drag Colbert out to start the fight. I got a bit worried -- yes, that's the word I'm going to use -- when the boys started taking off their jackets and belts, but what proceeded was just some light desk abuse. Colbert shoo'd Stewart and O'Brien away so that he could finish up his own program.
Of course, as soon as Colbert finished up and found Stewart outside, O'Brien had run back to 30 Rock to do Late Night. The home audience then had to wait half an hour before Late Night started to see the final round of the event. It was definitely, definitely worth the wait. After O'Brien's monologue, Stewart and Colbert strutted West Side Story-style into the studio and pulled O'Brien backstage. It was one fight scene cliche after the other, from slow-mo punching to falling into cardboard boxes to rolling down a flight of stairs. Some dancing somehow made its way in there, but I'm not complaining.
In the end, a pre-taped Huckabee had to settle things and make it clear that none of these "idiots" made him. I'm looking forward to Colbert's inevitable sobbing breakdown after this betrayal from his runningmate... Or should I say, former runningmate.
I'm surprised that they managed to pull this off, since all their tapings occur around the same time in the evening. Apparently ticket holders started getting e-mails to come a little earlier or a little later and rumors began circulating that at least one crossover was going to happen. I doubt anyone expected anything as awesome as this. I would also like to note that even those that haven't found this fake feud particularly amusing must find a bit of sweetness in it. After all, these are hosts that have constantly expressed how lost they feel without their writers. There's something wonderful in seeing three comedians doing each other a favor by creating some silly material and taking it this far, just to help fill time. This one dumb fight alone has taken up so many episodes. Bless their little late night hearts for helping each other out.
Group hug!
The O'Brien vs. Stewart vs. Colbert three-show throwdown - VIDEOS - TV Squad
