Stephen Colbert was following a proud tradition among American late night comedians when, during a recent monologue, he began skewering the corporation that pays his salary — a flex for comics to show off their disregard for boardroom pressures.
Paramount, owner of the CBS TV network, had just paid $16mn to President Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit against its “60 Minutes” news programme — and in the process cleared the way for its long-delayed $8bn sale to Skydance. Colbert was unimpressed.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles,” Colbert said from the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. “It’s ‘big fat bribe’.”