Highlight Reel

Highlight Reel: The Best Stephen Colbert Episode Ever?

When his featured guests, the band Daft Punk, bailed on him at the last minute.

It was supposed to be the TV event of the century: Stephen Colbert’s “StePhest Colbchella ’013: The Song of the Summer of the Century: It Ain’t the Heat, It’s the Rock-midity.”

The planned highlight: a live performance of Daft Punk’s song of the summer, “Get Lucky.” Only problem? No Daft Punk. The band had to cancel due to contractual issues with MTV, who wanted to keep them off the air until their scheduled performance on the VMAs later in the month. (Or was it all a pre-planned ruse? A report from Billboard.com suggests so.) Regardless, what happened next was nothing short of amazing. Watch as Colbert dances his way through the episode without a care, joined by a slew of celebrity guests and friends.

Putting on a seemingly carefree attitude, Colbert claimed he was under a lot of pressure to deliver during this episode. Hyundai, he said, had sponsored the event, and pledged what Colbert called “a lot of money” under the assumption that Daft Punk would be making an appearance. Colbert jokingly feared this would be the end of his career, “brought to you by Hyundai.”

Luckily for Colbert, he was able to land a live performance of what he deemed, for “personal and professional reasons,” the real hit song of the summer, “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke. As Thicke was conveniently sitting in the audience, he was more than happy to jump on stage and perform his single along with the help of his band and three scantily clad backup singers.

In the end, Colbert even got a couple of alleged “Hyundai executives” to dance along with him. Even without Daft Punk, Colbert was able to pull off yet another successful year of Colbchella.

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Samantha Guff

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