Oh great, yet another snarky left-wing comic “genius” to replace the one that’s retiring:

Colbert’s contract with Comedy Central, where he hosts The Colbert Report, runs through the end of 2014, the website notes, which would leave an opening for him to host the program.

If Colbert hosts Late Show, he would give up the conservative ‘Stephen Colbert’ persona he uses on The Colbert Report, sources said.

Last September, The Colbert Report finally put an end to The Daily Show’s 10-year winning streak at the Emmys, claiming the title of outstanding variety series for the first time.

Colbert recently came under fire for a satirical tweet and dedicated much of Monday’s show to addressing the uproar he caused when he created a faux charity called ‘The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.’ A Twitter hashtag #CancelColbert was created in response.

Colbert insisted its creation was inspired by the irony of Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s new charitable organization, ‘The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation.’ 

‘Internet equality is more important than ever, as I learned this weekend when the interwebs tried to swallow me whole,’ he explained. ‘But I am proud to say that I got lodged in its throat and it hacked me back up like a hastily chewed chicken wing.’ 

Colbert quipped: ‘Who would have thought that a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstandings.’

Quite aside from the hilarity of watching leftists try to out-group each other on Twitter, I have to say that this isn’t going to convince me to start watching late night comedy at all. I’ve long since given up on The Daily Show- I just don’t find it funny- and since I don’t watch Fox News (or any other news channel, for that matter), I don’t see the point of Colbert’s  “conservative” persona at all. To me, he’s just another snarky leftist who occasionally manages to make a good joke, but is still bereft of any functional ideology or understanding of how the world actually works.

There is much to be gained from good humour and laughter. But let’s actually laugh at things that are genuinely funny, rather than laughing merely at what is “safe” or “permissible”.