--- title: Colbert Spoofs Pope Francis With Jesus Christ TED talk description: Stephen Colbert discovered the one person who could one-up the Pope's TED Talk, Jesus Christ. canonical: https://time.com/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-27T16:02:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:10.239Z og:title: Jesus Christ Returns For a TED Talk to One-Up Pope Francis og:description: Stephen Colbert discovered the one person who could best the Pope's TED Talk og:url: https://time.com/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/ 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: Jesus Christ Returns For a TED Talk to One-Up Pope Francis twitter:description: Stephen Colbert discovered the one person who could best the Pope's TED Talk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Jesus Christ' Returns For a TED Talk to One-Up Pope Francis on Colbert > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 27, 2017 4:02 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 27, 2017 4:02 PM UTC [Pope Francis](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736336/pope-francis/?iid=sr-link3) surprised the attendees at the 2017 TED conference by beaming in from the Vatican for a talk, where he preached “[humility and togetherness](http://time.com/4755227/pope-francis-ted-talk-togetherness/?iid=sr-link2)” and argued for a “[revolution of kindness](http://time.com/4755663/pope-francis-ted-talk-transcript/?iid=sr-link1).” While attendees at the annual gathering of innovators, futurists, activists, and tech gurus are used to a star-studded stage, the arrival of the Pope seemed particularly moving, even for secular watchers. Sephen Colbert, though, was impressed for an altogether different reason: “I think it’s impressive for an 80-year old to set up his own web cam,” the comedian joked, noting, “It’s not like he can get help from the grandkids.” While the Pope’s surprise appearance at TED would be hard to top, Colbert was up to the challenge. He knew one guy who could upstage the Pope—Jesus Christ himself. “I come to you today as a simple carpenter, who also happens to be the son of God,” said “Jesus” on _The Late Show_ on Wednesday evening. “But I didn’t get here today through nepotism.” Jesus used his time on the TED stage to deliver a powerful speech about his new pilot program that involves “turning the other cheek.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/"},"headline":"'Jesus Christ' Returns For a TED Talk to One-Up Pope Francis on Colbert","datePublished":"2017-04-27T16:02:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:10.239Z","description":"Stephen Colbert discovered the one person who could best the Pope's TED Talk","url":"https://time.com/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Comedy","Religion","stephen colbert","Late Night Television","the late show with stephen colbert"],"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/4757578/jesus-christ-ted-talk-colbert/","name":"'Jesus Christ' Returns For a TED Talk to One-Up Pope Francis on Colbert"}}]}] ```