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In the second day of our Colbert Countdown, we talk about Stephen Colbert's inner geek. As Vulture.com's multi-media editor Abraham Riesman says:
We have in Stephen Colbert a late night host who is a true, dyed-in-the-wool, not-making-it-up geek. Throughout his near decade on the air with "The Colbert Report," we've seen this guy outclass virtually everyone who has ever read anything by J.R.R. Tolkien. And it's been fascinating to watch. As somebody who appreciates geek passion, watching this guy — who's handsome, who's slick, who's successful — shows that you can have that kind of passion and not be ashamed of it.
See in the below video Colbert face-off with James Franco over who is the bigger Tolkien expert.
Riesman posits that the very geek passion that Colbert displays around Tolkien is also evident in his passion for Christianity.
I would argue, much like Tolkien himself, he is a geek about Christianity. This is a guy who is liberal, progressive — I mean the character isn't, but Colbert himself is — but he's also a guy who teaches Sunday school. And he has [an] intellectual's approach to his faith.
In the below video Stephen Colbert takes Stanford professor and author Philip Zimbardo ("The Lucifer Effect") to Sunday school.
And while the Tolkien oeuvre is Colbert's forte, he's no stranger to the "Star Wars" canon. Here he reacts to the latest trailer for the upcoming film.
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