For non-US readers, and those unfamiliar with him, Stephen Colbert's persona on this show is a parody of a corporatist talk show host.
In times of general deceit, the truths are told in cabarets and comedy.
"You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined. Suddenly it all comes to be, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or more accurately what you haven’t done. For that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free