Stephen Colbert’s recap of Bernie Sanders’ debate showing was late night’s best

All of late night focused on the Democratic debate but Stephen Colbert’s coverage of Bernie Sanders was the best.

Major political debates have always caught the attention of late night shows. Add in a field of over 20 different characters as well as the political nature of shows in the Trump era and it’s obvious that the second Democratic presidential debate was going to get a lot of coverage. And nobody covered Bernie Sanders like Stephen Colbert.

Bernie Sanders has been a popular figure since his failed attempt at the Democratic nomination in 2016. Now he’s back for 2020 and is still the same old Bernie. That also means that some of the same old Bernie jokes, like his age, his voice, and his mannerism, have found their way back to late night.

Keeping things fresh when it comes to Bernie Sanders, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had the best coverage of Sanders’ performance during Tuesday night’s Democratic debate. The show was once again live which made the material Colbert and his writers came up all the more impressive.

Just about everyone in late night has tried to do a Bernie Sanders impression. It’s one thing to do the voice and shoulder/arm movements, but the best comedy seems to come from out outlandish of a thing the comedians say as Sanders. Colbert sets the bar pretty high with his bit about how much a nickel can buy.

He keeps it going after showing a clip of Sanders talking about health care in Canada. Colbert may have stopped making total sense when talking about riding “a moose to a beaver factory” but the joke still landed and the silliness of it all got the audience’s approval.

It would have been a little easier for Colbert to just focus on the minor candidates in the debate. He could have easily done an entire monologue on jokes like the one he aimed at former Maryland Representative John Delaney and his poor polling numbers.

Instead Stephen Colbert went after one of the biggest names on the stage in Bernie Sanders, just like those small-time candidates did. Luckily for Colbert, Sanders wasn’t there to hit back and the Late Show host was able to walk away with all his chiclets.