Following the New York Times‘ powerful “The Truth Is Hard” Oscars ad spot, The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert made an ad of his own, taking ample inspiration from the Gray Lady.
In the original commercial, the New York Times ruminates on what “the truth is,” exploring different takes on the phrase before ending with the messages, “the truth is hard to find,” “hard to know” and “more important now than ever.”
For Colbert’s spoof commercial, a promo for the Late Show, he replaced the main phrase with Donald Trump, using it as a way to joke about the president. Some of the most memorable phrases from Colbert’s parody? “Trump is a bully,” “Trump is America’s gullible uncle” and “Trump is Willy Wonka who has been genetically cross-bred with a carnivorous Oompa Loompa.” Like the Times‘ commercial, Colbert’s spot ends with a succint message: “Trump is speaking to Congress Tuesday night. We’ll be live. Afterwards.”
Watch the full ad spot below.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com