Pope Francis, who passed away Monday at the age of 88, leaves behind an extraordinary legacy marked by a focus on social justice, compassion for the marginalized, and a reform-oriented approach to the Catholic Church.
But most pertinent to this site, he’s also the only pope to have ever been celebrated with an hour of late-night comedy.
In September of 2015, Pope Francis, then just two years into his papacy, made a rare visit to the US, with a stop in New York City. The city was running a papal fever, Stephen Colbert included. If Pope Francis was headed to Madison Square Garden, why not invite him for a sit-down a mile up the road at The Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert?
Ahead of the pope’s NYC visit, Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan had unveiled a specially made chair for the Pope to sit in at Madison Square Garden, designed with humility as per Pope Francis’ request.
“I have also made a special chair just for the pope,” Colbert countered on his show a week away from the pope’s visit. “It’s so humble, it’s going to make that other chair look like one of those high-tech robot Japanese toilets.” With that, Colbert unveiled The Late Show’s pope chair: a metal folding chair with the word “POPE” crudely painted on it.
That chair didn’t seem to sway Pope Francis or his schedulers, as Colbert failed to bag a papal booking. But just because he couldn’t celebrate with the pope didn’t mean he couldn’t celebrate the pope’s visit. So on September 24, 2015, just hours after the supreme pontiff touched down in New York City, Colbert taped a special episode—er, make that “a pope-isode” of The Late Show.
The show began with a monologue focused on the pope’s visit, followed by a special opening—er, “popening”—featuring fireworks projected onto the dome of the Ed Sullivan Theater to accompany a glorious title animation reading “Tour de Francis: A New Pope: I [Heart] N-Y-Holy See Humblefest 2016!”
Then, to ensure maximum humility, Colbert also offered an alternate opening: a cardboard sign with the markered-on message, “Welcome Frank!”
Colbert riffed on the pope some more in a two-segment desk piece titled, “The Dope on the Pope.” The host once again showed off the Late Show Pope Chair (“You will not find a humbler Pope chair”), displayed an officially licensed life-size Pope Francis cardboard standee, and made some typically topical jokes (“After the speech, he had lunch with the homeless instead of the leaders of Congress— possibly because he wanted to eat with people who were less likely to beg him for donations”).
Beyond devoting top half of the show to pope-related fun and games, the episode’s interviews were also entirely Pope-focused. For his first chat segment, Colbert welcomed a “celebrity pope panel,” featuring journalist and former First Lady of California Maria Shriver, journalist and author Andrew Sullivan, and comedian Jim Gaffigan.
“Thanks for being publicly Catholic for me tonight,” Colbert told the group.
“We’re going to be crucified later, right?” Gaffigan asked.
“Maybe in the press,” answered Colbert.
The group engaged in a surprisingly weighty religious discourse for a comedy-centric late-night show. Sullivan discussed being an openly gay person in the Catholic faith. Gaffigan, who would be performing a standup set at an event being thrown for the Pope’s visit in Philadelphia later that week, reflected on the “notion of mercy” that Pope Francis had brought back to the religion. And Shriver discussed a study she had recently produced, titled “Insight into the Complex Catholic,” which explored what Catholics believe being a “good Catholic” is, and had found that Pope Francis’ beliefs matched up with 77% of Americans’ polled.
(Much of their discussion never found its way to Youtube, aside from an anecdote Shriver shared about her childhood fears of being called upon to be a nun.)
Next came the first of two musical tributes the pope would recieve from The Late Show that night. Reacting to a recent interview Pope Francis had given in which he admitted the papacy came with fake friendships, Colbert offered solace by song: a parody of James Taylor’s “You’ve Got A Friend,” accompanied by The Late Show’s then-bandleader Jon Batiste.
What made Colbert the right person to be the pope’s right-hand man? “Like you, I was recently elevated to an influential position by an all-seeing power,” the then-recently appointed Letterman replacement said as the CBS eye logo appeared over his shoulder.
After the song, Colbert teased his next guest, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Miami Thomas Wenski, with a Miami Vice-inspired montage titled “Archbishop of Miami.”Wenski gifted Colbert a medal of St. Genesius, the patron saint of comedians—and some Cuban cigars for good measure. (Colbert also sought an answer to a unique question: “Can Catholics have mojo? Is that a sin?”)
To close out the show, Colbert emerged from behind his Pope Francis standee to introduce a special musical performance: A powerful rendition of Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World,” courtesy of the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus and New York’s Choir of St. Jean Baptiste.
While Colbert never did get Pope Francis to grace The Late Show’s humble pope chair, the two did end up crossig paths a couple times. Last year, Colbert was asked by the Vatican to narrate the English-language audiobook for Pope Francis’ autobiography.
Months later, Colbert was one of three late-night hosts among a gaggle of comedians to who met the pope at the Vatican, where he was again accompanied by Gaffigan. Colbert recounted that encounter on the following episode of The Late Show, explaining that the pope’s encouraging words about the work of comedians hit home for him. “That was lovely to hear, because… I have spent a lot of my career wondering if the work that I do is compatible with my faith,” Colbert admitted.
In September, Colbert told Bon Appétit that Pope Francis remained his dream guest—with a twist. “My dream guest is to have the pope on, but for a cooking segment,” he said. “If we get to religion or faith, that’s fine, but we’re going to do his tortellini.”
While that visit was not to be, at least we got The Late Show‘s “Pope-isode.”
