--- title: Stephen Colbert Defends New Star Wars Lightsaber description: Stephen Colbert explains why the new "Star Wars" lightsaber is the best one yet. canonical: https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-02T18:40:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:45.437Z og:title: Watch Stephen Colbert Defend the New 'Star Wars' Lightsaber og:description: Stephen Colbert explains why the new "Star Wars" lightsaber is the best one yet. og:url: https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt992dd36a79e64e2d/69876bf50b72e3d6866dc45f/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-1-36-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=700&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 700 og:image:height: 394 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-12-02 at 1.36.48 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Stephen Colbert Defend the New 'Star Wars' Lightsaber twitter:description: Stephen Colbert explains why the new "Star Wars" lightsaber is the best one yet. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt992dd36a79e64e2d/69876bf50b72e3d6866dc45f/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-1-36-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=700&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Stephen Colbert Break Out a Whiteboard to Defend the New _Star Wars_ Lightsaber > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=54c2ade1-fd48-4ebb-969e-2408e9a5aa6f&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 2, 2014 6:40 PM UTC   by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 2, 2014 6:40 PM UTC Stephen Colbert has been a _Star Wars_ fan for two weeks longer than you have. When he was in the eighth grade, he explained on last night’s show, he won tickets from a local radio station to see the movie before it came out. And his original fandom qualified him to perform a scientific takedown of those who scorn the three-pronged lightsaber that debuted in last week’s [teaser trailer](http://time.com/3609579/star-wars-force-awakens-trailer/) for _The Force Awakens_. Though some fans claim that the “lightsaber with too many sabers on it” puts he who wields it at risk for some serious hand burns, Colbert pulls out a whiteboard to demonstrate the genius of the new design. “It’s simple,” he scoffs. “You just need three focusing crystal activators to split the plasma into perpendicular blade energy channels.” And just like that, Stephen Colbert won _Star Wars_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/"},"headline":"Watch Stephen Colbert Break Out a Whiteboard to Defend the New Star Wars Lightsaber","datePublished":"2014-12-02T18:40:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:45.437Z","description":"“It’s a ménage-a-saber”","url":"https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Star Wars","stephen colbert","star wars: the force awakens"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt992dd36a79e64e2d/69876bf50b72e3d6866dc45f/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-1-36-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt992dd36a79e64e2d/69876bf50b72e3d6866dc45f/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-1-36-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-12-02 at 1.36.48 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3614258/stephen-colbert-star-wars-lightsabers/","name":"Watch Stephen Colbert Break Out a Whiteboard to Defend the New Star Wars Lightsaber"}}]}] ```