colbert, trump, lawsuit, gut, infringement, copyright, whcd, the word, colbert report

Stephen Colbert Says He’s Suing Donald Trump

He says the president stole his "anti-intellectual property."
This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

Recommended Videos

Yesterday, we wrote about Donald Trump’s nonsense words about how he trusts his gut over science and facts and data. “One of the problems that a lot of people like myself — we have very high levels of intelligence, but we’re not necessarily such believers,” he told The Washington Post. People who tell him bad news regarding the economy or climate change or basically anything else are “making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

At the time, we noted how similar that sounded to an old bit of Stephen Colbert’s. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 20016, Colbert said the same thing, nearly verbatim (with some embellishments). “Guys like us,” he said to George W. Bush, “… we go straight from the gut. That’s where the truth lies, right down here, in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now I know some of you are going to say ‘I did look it up and that’s not true.’ That’s ’cause you looked it up in a book.”

We weren’t the only ones to notice the similarities. During last night’s episode of Late Show, Colbert called out the apparent plagiarism. “That quote about trusting your gut over the brains of experts reminded me of someone I used to know. … Me.

And the WHCD wasn’t the only time he used that “gut” bit. He used it in his very first-ever episode of The Colbert Report. He played the clip to prove it and then declared, “Trump stole my bit!”

“That is clear copyright infringement,” he went on. “He is stealing my anti-intellectual property! So tonight, I am officially announcing that I am suing Donald J. Trump for stealing my old character. It’s official!

So is Donald Trump a Colbert Report fan? Did that old bit slide into his subconscious and stick? Or is Trump just the full unwitting embodiment of Colbert’s over-the-top, narcissistic, ignorant right-wing caricature? We may never know, but I sure do hope Colbert follows through with his pledge to sue. Not that this is a provable infringement, of course, but with the whole heap of trouble Trump has beating down his door right now, why not throw one more pile of paperwork on top?

“You better lawyer up, buddy,” Colbert warns. “And somebody better than Rudy Giuliani, too.”

(image: YouTube)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—


The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.