Colbert Trolls Times, Trump With This Ad Parody

Stephen Colbert has to be thanking his lucky stars that Donald Trump is president. What's bad for America is apparently amazing for Colbert's ratings, as he's seen himself rebound from also-ran to pole position since Trump took office.

To sum up: Colbert has become more and more political since Trump has taken office. Whether it's because of his handling of Trump or just because America needs spikier comedy, Jimmy Fallon has fallen back to earth. Jimmy Kimmel, always a strong host, has managed to avoid controversy. In our current TV environment, however, that mainly means that he's a step or two outside the national conversation. That's not counting the time he literally hosted the Oscars, but you get the idea.

His latest salvo against the president is a fake ad taking off a New York Times ad that itself managed to piss off our thinnest-skinned citizen. Here is the original ad.

And here is Donald Trump's quick response.

Trump has made attacking the Times something of an obsession. As a luddite, he still gets almost all of his news from the Times, the Washington Post, and cable news. So it's no wonder that one of his only two credible sources of news taking shots at him would rankle.

Now, Stephen Colbert has created a fake ad that copies the real ad that pissed off Trump. Got all that? Ok, here's the ad.

It's functionally the same, but inserting Colbert's shots at Trump in the place of truth. Most notable is that Colbert has, about a month in, fully stepped into the political shoes he was looking to vacate. Republicans might buy sneakers, but he apparently doesn't need them to win the late-night ratings wars.

We're looking forward to his take on the State of the Union, coming live after the speech.