--- title: Stephen Colbert: Host Owns Lord of the Rings Trivia description: The Late Show will always talk about The Lord of the Rings. Always. canonical: https://time.com/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-05T14:33:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:09.732Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Proves He's the Biggest Lord of the Rings Fan og:description: "Gandalf did not put as much thought into this as I have" og:url: https://time.com/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Proves He's the Biggest Lord of the Rings Fan twitter:description: "Gandalf did not put as much thought into this as I have" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen Colbert Proves He's Still _The Lord of the Rings_ Trivia King by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 5, 2016 2:33 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 5, 2016 2:33 PM UTC To copy from Gandalf the Grey: Stephen Colbert cannot let a _Lord of the Rings_ question pass. A new video from _The Late Show_, shows Colbert proving to his audience (and [Peter Jackson](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/02/watch-stephen-colbert-grills-peter-jackson-about-next-hobbit-movie/?iid=sr-link2) and [James Franco](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/06/watch-stephen-colbert-schools-james-franco-in-lord-of-the-rings-trivia-smackdown/?iid=sr-link3)) that he is the one _Lord of the Rings_ fan who shall rule them all. Whether answering questions about _Lord of the Rings_ interview guests or favorite characters, Colbert reveals his love of the deeply arcane tidbits from J.R.R. Tolkien’s body from _The Hobbit_ to _The Silmarillion._ It’s also clear that Colbert has spent a lot of time thinking about Middle Earth trivia and the [_Lord of the Rings_](http://time.com/3701398/lord-of-the-rings-mythology-video/?iid=sr-link5)world that Tolkein created. When an audience member asks Colbert to name his favorite character from the [_Lord of the Rings_](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/02/watch-orlando-bloom-sings-in-lord-of-the-rings-spoof/?iid=sr-link10), Colbert launches into an intense monologue on Samwise Gamgee and why Gandalf thought Frodo Baggins could possibly throw the Ring into the cracks of Doom to destroy it. “Gandalf did not put as much thought into this as I have,” Colbert explained. Clearly. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Proves He's Still The Lord of the Rings Trivia King","datePublished":"2016-08-05T14:33:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:09.732Z","description":"The Late Show will always talk about The Lord of the Rings. Always.","url":"https://time.com/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","stephen colbert","late show","Lord of the Rings"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/4440615/stephen-colbert-late-show-lord-of-the-rings/","name":"Stephen Colbert Proves He's Still The Lord of the Rings Trivia King"}}]}] ```