Stephen Colbert almost forgot to get angry about New York City’s decision to allow gay banners at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade — but his peers at Fox News riled him up just in time.
“At first, I liked the idea of making gays march with a banner identifying themselves,” the host of “The Colbert Report” said during Thursday’s episode. “Fox News reminded me I was outraged.”
Colbert rolled clips from various Fox programs reporting “outrage” and “outcry” from “the Catholic community” over the new parade policy.
In light of the Fox coverage, Colbert turned to see the actual backlash. He was disappointed to learn that conservative firebrand Bill Donahue of the Catholic League has said that since pro-life Catholics can still march, “[t]here should be no controversy.”
“Alright well, that outrage was a little more nuanced than I usually expect, but then again Bill’s not a leader of the Church officially,” he said, turning to see what Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan had to say.
Up went footage of Dolan saying he found the decision a “wise one” and that he had “no trouble” with it all.
Exhausted, Colbert agreed with Donohue that, at the very least, gay participants should be reminded not to make a scene during their marching.
“Keep it dignified. You know, like this,” he said, before rolling tape of drunken New Yorkers from past parades stumbling through the festivities.
Watch, courtesy of Comedy Central:
