Stephen Colbert Covers GQ’s ‘Men of the Year’ Issue

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GQ today revealed the first Men of the Year cover featuring the “mic drop of the year” himself, Stephen Colbert. 

In speaking with GQ’s special projects editor Zach Baron, Colbert doesn’t hold back, covering everything from the moment he found out his no. 1 show had been cancelled, to how landing The Colbert Show at 41 helped him cope with crippling anxiety, and even making the compelling case for why the nation needs late night comedy.

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On the end of The Late Show, and what’s next…

“This is not my choice. So I don’t know how we’re going to land this plane, but people have asked me, ‘Well, what do you think you’re going to do next?’  And the cleanest and really fullest answer I can give you, not that I don’t have thoughts, is, the honest answer is, I just want to land this plane gracefully in a way that I find satisfying, given how much effort we’ve put into it for the last 10 years.”

On how his cancellation was delivered…

They [Paramount] didn’t call me and tell me. My manager told me.

On the explanation he was given for being cancelled…

“That they’re getting out of the late-night space altogether because it’s no longer profitable for the network. And I said, ‘Well, if we can’t be, then no one can be.’ And look, they run the business and I run the show, and far be it for me to tell them how to run their business, but I’ll stick with: I found it very surprising.”

More on what he called the “big fat bribe” between Paramount and Trump…

“My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: That is the network’s decision. I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation—I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us—decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.”

When asked if he enjoys reacting to Trump every night…

“No… I enjoyed going and doing the jokes and being with the audience when he wasn’t in office. I think we went three years without saying his name. I don’t think I said his name for three years. And if he made news, we would just come up with some nicknames. No, I love not talking about him.”

On if he’ll lose his identity without a stage presence… 

No, I know who I am without this. I didn’t do any of this until I was 41…That’s really old for somebody—it’s not really old, but you know what I mean. It’s late to take it. So that is only to say, I was married with all my children before I was Stephen Colbert, that anybody would know. And my identity is associated with that. And the family I grew up with and my faith.”

GQ’s Men of the Year issue hits newsstands November 18 and the annual celebration to toast this year’s honorees takes place in Los Angeles on November 13.

[Photo Credit: Tyrell Hampton / GQ]

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