The Late Night Feud: The Culmination (VIDEO)

For those who are regular viewers of any or all of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you're certainly aware of the stupidly funny feud that's been going on between Conan and Stephen Colbert over who "made" Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. For the uninitiated, I'll try to simplify it as best I can.

Mike Huckabee had, on two previous visits to The Colbert Report, told Stephen Colbert (only joking, one would presume) that he'd like him to be his running mate if he were to be the Republican candidate in this year's election. This is, of course, in exchange for Colbert giving Huckabee the "Colbert Bump" (Huckabee's polling numbers went up since his appearances on the show, and Colbert takes credit). After Huckabee won the Iowa primary, Colbert once again took credit for Mike Huckabee's rise.

Of course, over on NBC's Late Night, there was a different theory brewing. You see, Mike Huckabee's number one celebrity endorser is none other than Walker: Texas Ranger himself, Chuck Norris. A couple year's back, Conan started utilizing a Walker: Texas Ranger Lever on his show to play classic (and hilariously ridiculous) clips of the show, which certainly played a big part in the whole "Chuck Norris Facts" phenomenon that has swept the internet over the past few years and kind of revitalized Norris' career. So if Chuck Norris made Mike Huckabee, and Conan made Chuck Norris, then Conan naturally said he was responsible for Huckabee's Iowa win.

Then the bickering started. Both hosts began making comments about each other on their respective shows, trying to raise the bar (to hilarious results, I might add). It got to the point where Conan said that even if Colbert did make Muke Huckabee, Conan made Colbert by simply mentioning him on "network television". Colbert was about to admit defeat based on "sound logic", but then Colbert's Comedy Central pal joined the mix, showing up on The Colbert Report to show a clip from the early '90s of Conan O'Brien appearing on the old MTV show, The Jon Stewart Show. Thus, according to Jon Stewart, if Colbert made Huckabee, and Conan made Colbert, and Stewart made Conan, then Stewart made Huckabee.

Okay, so this is getting a bit long-winded, but remember, this has been going on for almost a month! So Conan reponded to the latest challenge on his show last Friday, showing a great photo of him in doctor's scrubs delivering baby Jon Stewart and baby Stephen Colbert, thus "making" both of them and ending the whole thing. He stated that if either of them continue discussing the issue, he'll be forced to come over to their shows and "kick some Comedy Central ass!"

And today that happened. All three hosts appeared on each other's shows one after another, as the apparent fight Conan had promised built up. Below is the culmination of this entire thing from the segments on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and finally Late Night. The end result may have been a bit silly (okay, a LOT silly!), but without writers, what else are they supposed to do? It can't very well be smart or clever without their great comedy scribes.

Obviously we at ShowbizMonkeys.com hope that the WGA strike ends soon, and with a good and fair deal for the writers, but this is one extremely positive thing that has come out of this strike. "The Feud" has been really fun to watch, and I'm almost sad it's done (though they had to end it before Super Tuesday, since it's quite likely Huckabee won't be in the race for much longer). Look for more extensive late night TV coverage coming up at the end of February.

Tags: late night, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

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Paul Little is the founder and Managing Editor of ShowbizMonkeys.com. When not interviewing his favourite musicians and comedians, he can also be found putting on and promoting music and comedy events with The Purple Room in Winnipeg, or co-producing the live comedy game shows Pants on Fire and The Great Patio Showdown. (@comedygeek)

Original Comments Posted (1)

Antalya says...

When I saw the fight earlier today, I laughed until I started wheezing. And then I laughwheezed my way to the America Made Huckabee ending.

Feb 5, 2008 5:13pm

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