--- title: Young Stephen Colbert Photo Goes Viral description: A photo of a young Stephen Colbert has captured the attention of the internet (for now) canonical: https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-17T16:46:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:45:26.866Z og:title: The Internet Fell for This Photo of Young Stephen Colbert og:description: The internet can't help but admire his "let-me-run-my-fingers-through-it hair" og:url: https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231f356cb9014d5d/6988d54e4ee26249c630e1a5/donald-trump-jr-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Fell for This Photo of Young Stephen Colbert twitter:description: The internet can't help but admire his "let-me-run-my-fingers-through-it hair" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231f356cb9014d5d/6988d54e4ee26249c630e1a5/donald-trump-jr-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet is In Love With This Photo of a Young Stephen Colbert > Sponsored content. 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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during a June 8, 2017 show.Scott Kowalchyk—CBS/Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 17, 2017 4:46 PM UTC A photo of what looks to be a youthful [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4854416/stephen-colbert-eric-trump-donald-trump-jr-russia-emails/?iid=sr-link1) has captured the attention of the internet (for now). A Redditor claims the photo shows Colbert back in 1984, when he was 20 years old, with a big smile and an equally big head of hair. The photo popped up on Reddit under the [Old School Cool](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/6nfehu/young%5Fstephen%5Fcolbert%5F1984/) tag recently and has been earning swoons and smiles ever since with commenters noting his “let-me-run-my-fingers-through-it hair” and dubbing it a “perfect” shot of _The Late Show_ host While according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen%5FColbert%5F%28character%29), [Colbert](http://time.com/4858728/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-on-brigitte-macron/?iid=sr-link2) once told his audience on _The_ [_Colbert_](http://time.com/4674480/colbert-on-trump-press-conference/?iid=sr-link3) _Report_ that he was serving as the “totalitarian ruler of Malawi from 1982 to 1984”, when this photo was snapped, it is more likely that he was studying acting at Northwestern University, where he learned the ropes of comedy by joining a few improv groups. It was only after he graduated from college and looking for work, that he ended up answering phones at the infamous Second City troupe, before enrolling in classes in 1987 and [studying alongside](https://www.secondcity.com/people/other/stephen-colbert/) Steve Carell, Amy Sedaris, and Chris Farley. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/"},"headline":"The Internet is In Love With This Photo of a Young Stephen Colbert","datePublished":"2017-07-17T16:46:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:26.866Z","description":"The internet can't help but admire his \"let-me-run-my-fingers-through-it hair\"","url":"https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231f356cb9014d5d/6988d54e4ee26249c630e1a5/donald-trump-jr-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231f356cb9014d5d/6988d54e4ee26249c630e1a5/donald-trump-jr-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","caption":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","creditText":"Scott Kowalchyk—CBS/Getty Images","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4860726/stephen-colbert-young-viral-photo/","name":"The Internet is In Love With This Photo of a Young Stephen Colbert"}}]}] ```