‘Still Reeling’ Colbert Mourns the Loss of Bill O’Reilly With the Happiest Dance Imaginable

On Thursday night, Late Show host Stephen Colbert opened his show with a shimmy—to send off the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who was let go from his longstanding hosting duties at Fox on Wednesday amid sexual assault allegations.

“I need a little somethin’ to hold me together, because I’m still reeling from the loss of Bill O’Reilly,” Colbert told his studio audience as he opened with a monologue. “This is reeling, right?” He then broke down into what can only be called a delighted jig.

“All of that is available on my exercise tape,” he added, in case viewers are keen to copy the sharp moves of his distinctive happy dance. Colbert also dug up some passages from a 1998 novel written by O’Reilly. Ironically, the protagonist of that book is a TV journalist who gets fired from his network news job.

“Quote: ‘His career was the source of his feelings of omnipotence and grandiosity. His TV job gave him daily ego gratification and excitement,'” Colbert read from the story, titled Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder. The book was dedicated, as Colbert noted, to the women in O’Reilly’s life. Watch Colbert’s dramatic reading, above.