Stephen Colbert has been covering the pope’s U.S. trip on “The Late Show” pretty much as you’d expect: with comedy and a whole lot of religious context.
The comedian, who was raised in a Catholic tradition, has dubbed the papal visit “Tour de Francis,” with a special “I (Heart) N-Y-HOLY SEE” joke for the New York leg of the trip. Colbert also hand-scribbled a “Welcome Frank!” greeting on a piece of cardboard and predicted that the pope’s Friday afternoon Mass at Madison Square Garden “is gonna be unforgettable when His Holiness dunks off a trampoline.”
“He could be the first pope ever to pull off a 360 tomahawk baptism,” Colbert said.
During one segment on his CBS show, Colbert presented “The Dope on the Pope” — a primer … of sorts.
“The pope is the leader of the Catholic Church and the head of state of Vatican City,” Colbert explained. “It is my favorite autonomous enclave within a major city, right after the Dallas Airport Chili’s Too.
“His Holiness is known by many names: Il Papa, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff and, on World of Warcraft, Athrog the Death Hammer.”
Athrog, it’s worth noting, was shown wearing a version of the mitre favored by Pope Francis.
Dubbed “The Pope’s Funniest Fan” by Time magazine, Colbert has said that he attends church, observes Lent and teaches Sunday school. “I love my church, and I’m a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout,” he once told Time Out magazine. “I was raised to believe that you could question the church and still be a Catholic.”
In a segment that aired Thursday night, after the pope landed in New York, Colbert sang a special song for Francis, to the tune of James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”
Colbert’s version included references to pizza rat, New York traffic and frankincense.
J. Freedom du Lac is the editor of The Post's general assignment news desk. He was previously a Local enterprise reporter and, before that, the paper’s pop music critic.
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