--- title: Stephen Colbert Pokes Fun at Trump at Bush Funereal description: Colbert was fascinated how the former presidents interacted with Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-06T18:40:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:19.146Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Jokes About Trump at Bush's Funeral og:description: Colbert was fascinated how the former presidents interacted with Trump og:url: https://time.com/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1c93150da339c71/698940e9457a52126ad6015a/colbertonbushfuneral.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ColbertonBushFuneral og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Jokes About Trump at Bush's Funeral twitter:description: Colbert was fascinated how the former presidents interacted with Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1c93150da339c71/698940e9457a52126ad6015a/colbertonbushfuneral.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Of Course Stephen Colbert Has Plenty of Jokes About Trump at Bush's Funeral by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 6, 2018 6:40 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 6, 2018 6:40 PM UTC President Donald Trump attended the funeral of former [President George H.W. Bush](http://time.com/5471058/george-hw-bush-funeral-live/) on Wednesday, and of course, Stephen Colbert, found the humor. “They even assured him that the choir would drown out the sound of other ex-presidents rolling in their graves,” Colbert joked in his monologue on Wednesday night’s episode of _The Late Show_. The late-night host pointed out that not insulting [Trump](http://time.com/5470736/attorneys-general-subpoena-trump-organization-irs/) was nearly impossible by virtue of comparison, like when [Bush](http://time.com/4754901/president-george-hw-bush-accomplishments/)’s biographer Jon Meacham said in his eulogy that Bush “life code was: tell the truth; don’t blame people.” Colbert wondered if that was already bending the rules. “As soon as you start praising someone’s honesty, you’re automatically throwing shade at Donald Trump. I mean, Obama made Trump seem like a bad president just by sitting next to him.” Speaking of former President Barack Obama, Colbert said, “It was quite a moving sight to see the presidents and the first ladies in the front row, waiting to honor President Bush, chatting comfortably with one another,” Colbert said. “Until Trump showed up, and then it became silent-staring time. Donald Trump is the only person in the world who can bring down a funeral.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/"},"headline":"Of Course Stephen Colbert Has Plenty of Jokes About Trump at Bush's Funeral","datePublished":"2018-12-06T18:40:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:19.146Z","description":"Colbert was fascinated how the former presidents interacted with Donald Trump","url":"https://time.com/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1c93150da339c71/698940e9457a52126ad6015a/colbertonbushfuneral.png?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/bltc1c93150da339c71/698940e9457a52126ad6015a/colbertonbushfuneral.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ColbertonBushFuneral","caption":"","creditText":"","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/5472620/stephen-colbert-trump-bush-funeral/","name":"Of Course Stephen Colbert Has Plenty of Jokes About Trump at Bush's Funeral"}}]}] ```