Stephen Colbert Calls Out Former Boss Louis C.K. Over ‘Disturbing’ Allegations

With The New York Times piece cataloguing years of sexual misconduct allegations against him about to drop, Louis C.K. canceled his planned appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday night. So Colbert had no choice but to address the last-minute change of plans during his opening monologue.

“For those of you tuning in to see my interview with Louis C.K. tonight, I have some bad news,” Colbert said. “Then I have some really bad news. Louis cancelled his appearance here tonight because The New York Times broke this story today: Five women are accusing Louis C.K. of sexual misconduct. When reached for comment, Jesus said, “‘La-la-la-la-la. I don’t want to hear about it, I was a big fan!’”

Colbert called the stories about his former boss “disturbing” and “the latest in an avalanche of allegations against powerful and prominent men,” before moving on to his next bit.

It could not have been easy or comfortable for Colbert to call out the man who was his boss on one of his earliest TV gigs back in 1996. When Colbert landed a spot on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show, C.K. was serving as head writer, as is chronicled in the recent documentary Too Funny to Fail. 

Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien, who worked with C.K. for years on his NBC Late Night show, decided not to say anything about the allegations during this final episode of his week from the Apollo Theater in New York. Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted C.K. on his show at least nine times, also declined to comment on the story.

On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah joked that he thought Facebook’s unnerving efforts to stop revenge porn would be the “most pervy story” he would see all day. “And then Louis C.K. said, ‘Hold my penis.’”

“Like, at this point, we’re going to need a new Oscar category this year: Best actor whose movies we can’t watch anymore,” he continued. “All women in Hollywood should win double Oscars for acting like all the men were cool all along, every single one of them. This shit is insane.” It’s come to the point where, when Noah sees a “beloved celebrity’s” name trending on Twitter, he thinks to himself, “Oh, please tell me they’re dead, please tell me they’re dead, please tell me they’re dead.”

Jordan Klepper, of Comedy Central’s The Opposition, also touched on the Louis C.K. allegations during his show. “Big news today affecting the world’s most vulnerable population: powerful white men,” Klepper said before airing Fox News’ report that combined the allegations against C.K. and Alabama’s Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of child molestation.

In reference to C.K., Klepper jokingly urged his viewers to “separate the art from the artist,” telling them, “When you’re watching Louis C.K.’s film I Love You, Daddy, a film about an old man dating a young woman featuring a serial masturbator, please, don’t think of Louis C.K.’s accusers.”