Zaddy Colbert

GQ has been releasing its Men of the Year package this week ahead of a live red carpet event featuring their cover stars and more celebrities on November 13. 

My favourite out of all the covers is Stephen Colbert… because this is not usually how we see Colbert. Colbert cosplaying as Robert Evans in his photo shoot at Chateau Marmont? Colbert in pastels and purple pants lounging in a wicker chair giving f-ckboy tech bro? I didn’t know I needed it until I saw it. 

And it works because we all know this is not who he is. His smile, of course, gives him away. Colbert’s smile is grounded in goodness, in integrity; this is someone who has shown, for two decades now, on television every day, how thoughtful and smart he is. 

But now he can add sexy to that. Because … like… he’s sexy here, isn’t he? As the kids would say, a total zaddy, zaddy with underappreciated hair! You can cancel his #1 show but that hair will not quit! 

On a more serious note, though, if we’re talking about quitting – it came up of course is Colbert’s interview because he only has six months left of The Late Show and it’s not just about quitting the work but also quitting the spirit of that work, which is in part to satirise power structures, an essential pillar of a democratic society. And that will never happen to Stephen Colbert, as he tells GQ – while, of course, invoking Lord of the Rings: 

“I don’t despair. Spaire literally is from Spero: “I hope.” The motto of my home state, South Carolina, is Dum spiro spero: While I breathe, I hope. And despair itself is a sin. You are not allowed to despair because that means you know all ends and not even the wise know all ends, to quote my friend Gandalf. But one of the things that I said to Jon toward the end when we were doing those shows together, I said, “You know what's funny to me? Is everybody thought that we wanted to be players.” When we did that, people were like, “Well, they're trying to actuate the youth vote!” Nothing. 

No part of it. We saw that was a new context. It had nothing to do with us trying to be political players. There's a great moment in the Lord of the Rings. Again, I can relate anything back to The Lord of the Rings. It's one of the last lines of my special skills on my résumé. But there's a moment when Gandalf says, “One of our great hopes here is that it is not entered into Sauron’s darkest dreams that we would ever want to destroy the ring.” And so I always felt that John was Frodo and I was Sam, and all I wanted to do was help him. We wanted to throw the ring in the fire. Now, what is the ring? I guess it’s power for the sake of power, as opposed to power for the sake of service.”

I don’t f-ck with LOTR, but I do think it’s endearing that Stephen Colbert is such a super-nerd about it. That’s always been a part of his sexiness. We have until May to enjoy that every night. May we appreciate this without despair because he will not go out on that note, guaranteed.