One of the harder things about being a talk show host can be navigating interviews with all manner of different personalities, without causing any undue offense. Current host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert has experienced both sides of that coin in his time on the CBS program, and before.
His 2018 interview with actress Kristen Stewart took an awkward twist that is difficult to unsee. It all started with a weird embrace at the start of the interview, and reached the zenith of discomfort when Colbert - uninvited - started to adjust the microphone on Stewart’s chest.
On the other hand, he enjoyed a memorable exchange when he welcomed The Matrix star Keanu Reeves on The Late Show the following year. Reeves had fans almost in tears during the interview, as he recalled some of the hardship that he had to endure before he found success and fame in Hollywood.
There had been even more positive vibes when rapper Nicki Minaj made an appearance on the show in August 2018, with fans today still talking about her incredible chemistry with the late night show host.
Colbert Referred To Nicki Minaj As ‘Fast And Funny’
Colbert joined The Late Show as the eventual successor to the legendary David Letterman in 2015. Those were big shoes to fill, but the D.C.-born TV personality managed to do so with his grace and professionalism, especially during interviews.
When he welcomed Nicki in that 2018 interview, Colbert complimented her at the very beginning, as he referred to her as ‘fast and funny.’ Little did he know just how much the rapper’s wit would go on to leave him completely red-faced just moments later.
It all started when the host brought up lyrics of her song Barbie Dreams, where she goes through a comprehensive list of men she wouldn’t be with. Colbert hilariously noted that he was not on the list, but asked how she would break it to him if he had been.
In true Nicki Minaj-style, the artist quickly dropped a few steamy freestyle lines, leaving Colbert completely flushed. “I might **** Stephen after the show, he gon’ come back to work with a magical glow,” the lines went. “But, when you see us please don’t stare, just address me as Queen, Nicki Colbert.”
Fans Think That Nicki ‘Broke’ Colbert
Colbert attempted to move forward to the next bit of the interview in the immediate aftermath of Nicki’s bold freestyle, but he was looking completely stumped. “Now you, uhh, uh.. I don’t know where to go from here actually,” he stuttered. “I just don’t know what to do. I just don’t want to pass this moment. I just want to linger here for so long.”
To add salt to injury, the rapper then asked Colbert whether he was married, leaving the flustered host even more lost for words, albeit momentarily.
‘My brother saw this for the first time and he was like “she broke him,” she really did,’ one fan wrote in the YouTube comments. ‘I love it. She should come again soon.’
In the end, Colbert eventually managed to press on with the rest of the interview, which still had plenty of light moments between guest and host. It is indeed not a new thing to see The Late Show host getting along so well with a celebrity: his relationship with The Office star Steve Carrell is often deemed by fans to be friendship goals.
Nicki And Colbert Are Two ‘Antithetic’ Characters
Nicki is an effortless flirt, and she managed to use her charms on Colbert in ways that are typical of her. In an old interview with Ellen DeGeneres, she admitted to this kind of word play, even in the song Fraud, where Ellen gets a mention.
In a latter part of the interview on The Late Show, Nicki and Colbert switched places for a while, with the artist delivering a joke that was cut out of a previous monologue on the show. Colbert, on the other hand, had to rap a part of Nicki’s 2018 hit single, LLC.
After taking a first shot at it, she encouraged him to go again, this time guiding him into a beat and rhythm. The result was pretty impressive, with fans online reacting in the same way as those cheering him on in the live audience. ‘I like how she motivated him with a beat,’ one Tinker Bell wrote on YouTube. ‘She's a real rapper.’
For fans looking from the outside in, it was easy to admire this chemistry between two arguably antithetic characters: ‘Two seemingly very different types of people with great chemistry, THAT'S entertainment!’ another online commenter observed.
