Stephen Colbert Gets Serious About Arizona Shooting And Avoids Blame Game

Following in the restrained footsteps of Jon Stewart, last night Stephen Colbert, in a rare moment out of his usual character, said “all of us are shocked and saddened by the senseless attack in Tucson this weekend.” Although it was a bit jarring to not see Colbert go for laughs, his seriousness helped elevate him above the ongoing political bickering.

Colbert mentioned that the astronaut husband of Congresswoman Giffords previously filmed a segment with Colbert teaching him how to land a space shuttle. Colbert then concluded, “we may never know what motivated this clearly unbalanced individual, but we do know that now is not the time to lay blame or politicize this tragedy.”

To restore a comedic tone to the show, Colbert then showed clips of political pundits from both sides of the aisle pointing fingers at the other in the wake of the tragedy. Colbert’s response, “guess I’m wrong – did we pick someone to blame yet? Well get on it, I look like an idiot out here.” Actually, last night Stewart and Cobert demonstrated that they certainly are not the idiots.

Watch the clip from Comedy Central below:

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