Prolonging the Internet’s often fickle, fleeting love for Noah Ritter, the “Apparently” kid, Stephen Colbert spent part of Wednesday’s Colbert Report comparing the 5-year-old newsman to Sean Hannity, based on a shared affinity for repeating meaningless adverbs and making every news story all about him. Now, in an interview with TV Newser, Hannity takes umbrage with Colbert comparing him to a child, telling Colbert he’s not funny and his show sucks and he doesn’t even watch it anyway, and also Colbert has a bunch of writers writing those jokes for him, so it’s not even fair. Also, Gaza.

TVNewser: I don’t know if you saw it, but Stephen Colbert had some fun with your liberal use of the word “literally” during your coverage. How do you handle that when the late night comics dissect your performance? Hannity: Look Stephen Colbert… I understand that people have their job to do. First of all, he’s not as funny as Jon Stewart. Stephen Colbert will have the lowest-rated late night show. There are issues that just aren’t funny. Terrorism isn’t funny. I didn’t see the bit. I won’t see it. I don’t care. Maybe Stephen Colbert needs to come over here and get a dose of reality. He sits in the comfort of his studio, reading jokes written for him by 30 writers. So, I have a challenge for Stephen Colbert: I’ll pay for your flight. I’ll pay for your hotel, your meals. Then you sit on the border. You talk to the people. You sit across from the mother of an Israeli solider who was killed, and then make a joke about it.


Having asserted that Colbert’s bit—which he didn’t see and doesn’t wanna—is tantamount to joking about terrorism, Hannity rested, secure that he’d proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he’s an adult with a sense for the reality of a situation. And that Colbert would certainly be too chicken to take him up on his challenge to visit a war-torn region (except for that time he spent a week in Iraq).

Hannity is currently wrapping a trip where he spent four whole days in Israel, before returning to the comfort of his studio.


[via The Wrap]