Absent for 15 Years, Father Guido Sarducci Resurfaces on Colbert’s Late Show

It’s been nearly 15 years since his last public appearance, but Father Guido Sarducci (the alter ego of legendary comedy writer Don Novello) was back on late-night television Tuesday night, joining Stephen Colbert to discuss the papal conclave.

Apparently still employed as the gossip columnist at the Vatican Enquirer, Sarducci kibbitzed with Colbert for a full six minutes about everything from RFK Jr, the movie Sonic the Hedgehog, and why after all these years working in the Vatican, he’s still a priest and not a Monsignor (“they keep screwing me,” explained  Sarducci).

Finally, it was down to business as Colbert asked the chain-smoking priest who he thought will be the next pope—and he delivered a bombshell.

“Well, I predict… I think it’s fixed,” Sarducci declared. “Benedict XVI is going to be the pope again. That’s my prediction.”

When Colbert reminded him that Pope Bendict is dead, Sarducci responded “That’s what you think…It’s a rumor. It’s like Elvis,” he added. “It’s a conspiracy.”

“But we saw his funeral,” Colbert objected.

“Yes, but no one has seen him since his funeral,” Sarducci replied.

Can’t argue with that.

First created by Don Novello in 1973, Sarducci rose to prominence when Novello began performing the character on Saturday Night Live in the late 70s while he was on the show’s writing staff.  He went on to play Sarducci in 43 distinct segments across 31 SNL episodes. No other fictional character has appeared on the show nearly as often.

Remarkably, all of Novello’s SNL appearances as Sarducci came during show’s first 20 seasons. Though he went on to perform the character elsewhere—including appearances on multiple talk shows, sitcoms and movies—his last two credited appearances as Sarducci were back in 2010, when he appeared on The Colbert Report in June, and then delivered the benediction several months later at Colbert and Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Surfacing for the first time in nearly fifteen years, Novello as Sarducci sported a slightly different look on Colbert’s Late Show, with a mostly grey goatee replacing his trademark black moustache, and a zebra shirt supplanting the traditional black. (Though he was still wearing a clerical collar with the new shirt, his black beret was also adorned with a priestly white square.)

Novello’s complete Tuesday night appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert can be viewed at the top of this post.