For nearly a decade, critics, scholars, and longtime fans have mourned the slow erosion of sharp satire. It was whispered in newspaper columns, muttered in university lecture halls, and tweeted after yet another toothless late-night monologue. Satire had softened. Political comedy had lost its edge. The fearless spirit of performance art — the kind that stings, provokes, and illuminates — seemed to be fading into nostalgia.
The world had settled for safe jokes, recycled punchlines, and commentary that sounded timid in an era starving for truth.
And then Stephen Colbert struck the match.
⭐ONE STAGE. ONE MONOLOGUE. ONE CULTURAL DETONATION.
It happened on an ordinary night. No special occasion. No heavily promoted guest. No warning that a seismic moment in entertainment was about to unfold. Yet the instant Colbert stepped onto the stage, something shifted.
