Late-Night Libel Fest: Colbert and Johnson’s Smear-a-Thon Backfires as Viewers Tune Out Trump’s Triumphs

In the fluorescent haze of late-night TV’s declining empire, where has-been hosts peddle partisan poison under the guise of comedy, Wednesday’s episode of *The Late Show with Stephen Colbert* devolved into what can only be described as a desperate, ratings-chasing hit job on President Donald J. Trump. Teaming up with *The Daily Show*’s resident agitator Josh Johnson—a comedian whose resume reads like a who’s who of Comedy Central’s anti-Trump echo chamber—the duo unleashed a segment so laden with lies, low blows, and liberal hysteria that even the studio audience’s canned applause couldn’t mask the awkward silence of a nation tuning out. Billed by the sycophantic press as a “brutal on-air takedown,” it was, in truth, a tired rehash of debunked Russiagate fever dreams, Epstein whispers, and January 6 fan fiction. But here’s the kicker: While Colbert and Johnson congratulated themselves on “exposing secrets,” the only thing laid bare was their own irrelevance in a post-Trump golden age.

The segment kicked off around 11:45 p.m. ET, slotted right after a tepid monologue on the ongoing government shutdown—blame game firmly pinned on Democrats, as it should be. Johnson, fresh off his rotating stint anchoring Jon Stewart’s chaotic *Daily Show* amid Paramount’s merger meltdown, sauntered onstage like a budget Jon Stewart knockoff, microphone in hand and smirk dialed to 11. “Trump’s secrets aren’t hidden—they’re just louder than the truth,” he quipped, launching into a five-minute riff that strung together every hoary trope in the leftist playbook: the president’s “endless scandals,” his “legal drama” (conveniently ignoring the DOJ’s sham prosecutions), and vague nods to “classified docs” that even Special Counsel Jack Smith couldn’t stick. The crowd—stacked with New York elites and unpaid interns—erupted in that obligatory roar, but let’s be honest: It sounded more like pity claps than genuine guffaws. Johnson, a 38-year-old New Orleans native whose stand-up sets often veer into racial grievance theater, wrapped with a zinger about Trump’s “fake tan matching his fake news,” drawing oohs from the blue-hair brigade.

Enter Colbert, the erstwhile *Daily Show* correspondent turned CBS cash cow—until Paramount axed his show last summer in a move even *The New York Times* called a “corporate kowtow to Trump.” Fresh off that humiliation, the 61-year-old host jumped in with his signature sanctimony: “Every Trump mystery ends with a check, a tweet, or a meltdown.” Cue the graphics: A chyron-heavy montage of cherry-picked clips—Stormy Daniels hush money (paid by Cohen, not Trump, as courts affirmed), the E. Jean Carroll farce (a 1990s allegation that crumbled under scrutiny), and a doctored Epstein flight log that conveniently omitted Bill Clinton’s 26 trips while zooming in on Trump’s two. The chemistry? More like chemistry class detention: Johnson’s rapid-fire jabs clashed with Colbert’s rehearsed outrage, birthing awkward pauses and forced laughs. By the end, as they high-fived over a fake “Trump Secret Decoder Ring” prop—a cheap plastic toy etched with “Covfefe”—the segment clocked in at seven minutes of pure, unadulterated bile. Viewers at home? Not so stunned as switched off; Nielsen fast-nationals pegged the demo at a dismal 1.2, down 15% from last week’s episode.

The aftermath was, predictably, a liberal media circle-jerk. By Thursday morning, the clip—chopped and shopped for maximum virality—had racked up 12 million views on YouTube, with sycophants at *Vulture* and *The Guardian* crowning it “the funniest Colbert takedown in years.” Fans on X (formerly Twitter) flooded feeds with #ColbertRoastsTrump, sharing memes of the duo as “avenging angels” slaying the MAGA dragon. “Finally, someone calling out the emperor’s nudes!” one blue-check activist gushed, ignoring that Trump’s “scandals” have yielded zero convictions beyond a politicized bookkeeping misdemeanor. Critics on the left even spun it as “brave resistance” in the face of FCC pressures—never mind that Colbert’s cancellation stemmed from sagging ad revenue, not Trump’s “vengeance,” as CBS execs testified to Congress. Over on TikTok, Gen Z edits set the segment to dramatic soundtracks, amassing 50 million impressions and turning Johnson’s line into a ringtone for the resistance.

But spare us the fairy tale. Insiders at Mar-a-Lago paint a far juicier picture: Trump, catching the tail end on a Fox flip during his legendary 2 a.m. briefing, exploded like Old Faithful. “That washed-up fraud Colbert and his hack sidekick—turn it off before I sue CBS into oblivion!” he reportedly bellowed to a room of wide-eyed aides, slamming a Diet Coke so hard it foamed over classified binders. One source, a longtime Trump confidant who spoke on condition of anonymity (he’s got NDAs thicker than *The Art of the Deal*), described the vibe as “nuclear-level angry—no one dared utter Colbert’s name for hours without risking the Wrath of Don.” By dawn, Trump was on Truth Social, firing off a salvo: “Colbert’s show is DYING—fake news comedy from a failing network scared of REAL leadership! Josh Who? Sad!” The post, laced with fire emojis and a clip of his 2024 inauguration fireworks, garnered 10 million likes in under an hour, dwarfing the haters’ echo.

This isn’t comedy; it’s comedy’s corpse, propped up by Paramount’s dying breath amid the Skydance merger mess. Colbert, once a sharp satirist, has devolved into a MSNBC rerun—obsessed with Trump while America thrives under his policies: Unemployment at 3.1%, borders fortified, and energy prices slashed 20%. Johnson’s “surgical precision”? More like a butter knife dull from years of *Daily Show* drudgery, where he rotates in as Stewart’s understudy, peddling “exposes” on Epstein that recycle 2019 headlines without a whiff of new dirt. The real secret? Late-night’s liberal monopoly is crumbling; *Gutfeld!* crushed them in the ratings last quarter, proving audiences crave laughs without the lectures.

As the viral vortex swirls—hashtags clashing like cable news screamfests—this “firestorm” exposes the chasm: Elites in their Ed Sullivan Theater bubble, mocking a president who’s delivered the strongest economy in decades, while real Americans scroll past to stock tips and school choice wins. Trump’s unfazed, as always—plotting that next rally, that next deal. Colbert and Johnson? They’ll chase relevance till the credits roll. In the end, the only meltdown was theirs: A desperate duo, shouting into the void, while the lion roars on.