Colbert Mocks Rachel Maddow’s Lengthy Preamble to Underwhelming News on Trump’s Taxes

On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Wednesday night, Colbert parodied Tuesday night’s Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC for overhyping news that it had acquired Donald Trump’s 2005 tax forms only to underwhelm the audience with what it had discovered. This, of course, after a lengthy preamble. And it was this preamble that received the majority of Colbert’s ire, with a spot-on impression of Maddow.

Rachel Maddow waves Trump tax returns on <em>The Rachel Maddow Show</em>. (Photo: MSNBC)
Rachel Maddow waves Trump tax returns on The Rachel Maddow Show. (Photo: MSNBC)

Colbert began, “I hold in my hand something very significant. It is a joke. A joke that we have confirmed has been heard by Donald Trump. We believe this is the first time any joke connected with Donald Trump has been released. This is an old joke from before he was president. We’ve obtained this joke legally. The First Amendment gives us the right to tell this joke. This — this piece of paper I hold in my hand, the part facing me with the words that you can’t see, this is the document with the joke. The joke in question, ‘Why did the chicken…’ But first a word on chickens.”

That word on chickens turned to a Russian oligarch’s ties to chickens and then to the meaning of what exactly a road is and what it can be used for.

Maddow saw the bit and jokingly tweeted, “OH MY GOD HOW DOES HE KNOW I HAD A PET CHICKEN.”

The bit ended in a way that shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s ever watched a television news show — network, cable, or otherwise.

Colbert said definitively, “So without further ado. Why did the chicken cross the road? The answer right after this break.”

Watch Rachel Maddow on ‘The Tonight Show’ give the backstory to the Trump tax form announcement:

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