The Colbert Report

Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's 'Fake' Newsman

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By Daniel Schorn

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(CBS)
He admits he has what Gary Trudeau called the "boring baritone."

"I have a boring baritone; I have boring hair. Every decision that I've made in my life is the middle decision," he tells Safer.

"You sort of disappear," Safer remarked.

"I hope so. I'm a manila envelope," Colbert replied.

"It has been said, I don't know if it's any truth to it, that all good comedians have some painful experience in their in their lives. Any truth to that thesis, do you think?" Safer asked.

"Sure," Colbert replied. "My father and two of my brothers died when I was 10. I think I did my best to cheer my mom up."

The three were killed in 1974 in an Eastern Airlines crash.

Asked if the tragedy still affects his life, Colbert says, "I know that after they died, nothing, I was 10, you know? I was still in school. It was in elementary school. But nothing seemed that important to me. And so, I had immediately had sort of a, I won't say a cynical detachment from the world. But I would certainly say I was detached from what was normal behavior of children around me. It didn't make much sense. None of it seemed very important. And I think that, you know, feeds into a sense that acceptance, or blind acceptance of authority, is not easy for me."

At home, Colbert is a doting father who makes sure his kids do not see the other Colbert — he only rarely let his kids watch the show.

"It's just like a pure silly thing. But you know, I truck in insincerity. With a very straight face, I say things I don't believe," Colbert tells Safer.

"Kids can't understand irony or sarcasm, and I don't want them to perceive me as insincere," Colbert says, "Because one night, I'll be putting them to bed and I'll say ... 'I love you, honey.' And they'll say, 'I get it. Very dry, Dad. That's good stuff,'" jokes Colbert.

Meantime, insincerity is paying big dividends and playing to more than a million people a night.

"Is there any possibility of the danger of you starting to believe yourself?" Safer asked.

"I hope so," Colbert replied. "I think that's the only hope that I'll actually do this job right — if I begin to believe my own line of crap."