video

Last week, we posted the wonderful video of a dog joyously welcoming home his owner, a soldier who had been away for nine months. Unfortunately, there’s a flip side to stories like that and today we got a heartbreaking reminder. A picture making the rounds online today shows the funeral of Petty Officer 1st Class Jon Tumilson, one of the 30 American special operation troops killed earlier this month when a helicopter was downed in Afghanistan. The picture shows Tumilson’s loyal dog Hawkeye lying by the soldier’s casket where he refused to leave. On top of the casket sat a framed photo of Tumilson, posing with Hawkeye during happier times.

Tonight, Stephen Colbert saluted the troops that were so hospitable to him last June by inviting them to a military-only taping of The Colbert Report. But that’s not all: to offer them something they couldn’t get while they were deployed, he offered them all free beers and hotdogs — hot dogs delivered by Vice President Joe Biden.

video

This clip crystallizes one of the reasons why The Colbert Report is so damn good: Anything can happen, and when it does, it will happen for the right reasons. It will also be kooky, goofy, funny and hilarious — but it will be shot through with decency, charity, tolerance and warmth. You will seriously never find mean humor on the Colbert Report. It’s just not what that show’s about — it’s about Woody Harrelson‘s shaved head!