Having made it past the #CancelColbert controversy, Stephen Colbert’s satircal persona is back to its roots, mocking the tirades of “Papa Bear” Bill O’Reilly.
Spotlighting a Tuesday rant from the Fox host’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Colbert took a moment on Thursday night’s show to praise O’Reilly’s unique take on racial and economic inequality in America. (Short version: it’s pointless to fight it.)
Ostensibly beginning as a critique of the liberal agenda to reduce income inequality, O’Reilly’s lecture soon took a bizarre turn.
“Each human being is born with abilities, but they are not equal abilities,” the Fox host said. “I will never have physical equality with my fellow Irishman, Shaquille O’Neal! He’s bigger and stronger than I am, by nature.”
Colbert called O’Reilly’s logic airtight: “Trying to achieve equality is unnatural! I mean take income inequality — Shaquille O’Neal is taller than Bill O’Reilly, therefore the richest 1 percent of Americans should control 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.”
Summing up, Colbert seized on O’Reilly’s declaration: “There will never be equality in this world, it’s impossible! An opium-laced dream!”
“Yes!” shouted Colbert, “I believe that’s what Dr. [Martin Luther] King was talking about in his, ‘I Have An Opium-Laced Dream’ speech!”
Watch the segment below, courtesy of Comedy Central:
