Rush Limbaugh recently denounced CBS’s choice of Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman on The Late Show, but I don’t see why. I never “got” Letterman, who has always come off as little more than a bitter, snarky asshole to me. Doesn’t seem like it would be hard to find a better replacement for the guy, but maybe at the tender age of 39 I’m just not sophisticated enough to appreciate his brand of humor.

Instead of improvement, the network appears to be trying to stay true to message, and plans to replace him with another bitter, snarky asshole. Only this time, the guy has built his career on a supposedly odious character who is probably more likeable than the man himself.

Stephen Colbert has risen to prominence by portraying conservative Americans as moronic imbeciles. It plays really well to the left, and gets a few laughs from the right, too, because conservatives are better sports, and can actually laugh at themselves.

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Stephen Colbert hit it big with his spoof of right-wing talk hosts, but that’s the only thing he’s done of any note whatsoever. Colbert is a one-trick pony. His acting skills are not bad (I’ve seen him on Law and Order), but his charisma is scraping the bottom of the barrel. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to watch Colbert being himself. It’s a horrible decision on the part of CBS to give him a real talk show, but then again it doesn’t bother me much when major networks screw up.

Watching a poor, flaccid imitation of a boomer liberal like Dave Letterman is going to be a lot less exciting than taking cheap shots at conservatives, so I expect people to simply change the channel when they see the treacle that characterizes the real Stephen Colbert. It will be like pulling the curtains away from the Oz of progs, revealing the squinty, beady-eyed little mediocrity Colbert trying to be “with it” despite being nothing more than an out-of-touch Irish nerd who is generally reviled by the demographic he’s been hired to represent.

Good luck, CBS. You would have done better with a Spanish-language bimbo talk show about Mexican telenovelas.