And on (and on and on) he went, talking about the joke without … actually … telling … it.

The name of the segment, naturally: “Stephen Pulls A 'Rachel Maddow.'”

Maddow was an obvious and deserving target for Colbert, one night after she'd taken to Twitter to tease a bombshell about President Trump's tax returns, then took to the air 84 minutes later to drone on and on about the scoop without revealing its details.

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Her MSNBC show's long and winding A-block ran more than 19 minutes and ended with Maddow noting the first two pages of Trump's 2005 1040 form: “We got it tonight. And I am sure it is only the start. But it's a start. And our little piece of it, we just got it, we'll go through it … next.”

(Cue commercial break.)

“In journalism, it’s called 'burying the lede,'” The Post's Margaret Sullivan wrote.

Maddow, Sullivan said, had given “a master class” in the journalistic equivalent of throat clearing.

“With huge numbers of viewers tuned in because of her earlier tweet that she had obtained President Trump’s tax returns, she talked … and talked … and talked,” Sullivan wrote. “For an eternity — or close to 20 minutes, which certainly felt like an eternity — viewers heard about everything except the actual news.

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“We got Russian oligarchs, Cypriot banks, the firing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn and much more.”

And Maddow got mocked — mercilessly.

Eventually (though not until after she'd been scooped by the Daily Beast), Maddow got around to sharing what was in the leaked document:

The president paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005 on income of $153 million — an effective tax rate of 24 percent — and saved millions of dollars in additional taxes by reporting a $105 million write-down in business losses and then claiming those losses, as The Post reported.

Maddow defended herself Wednesday, telling the Associated Press: “My priority is to get the story right and put it into proper context, and explain the weight of it and why it is important.”

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Colbert addressed the slow roll in his “Late Show” monologue, noting that “after like 20 minutes of explaining what taxes are and who Donald Trump is, Maddow was ready to show us the tax return.”

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He then showed Maddow ending her opening segment by going to a commercial break.

“What?! A cliffhanger?!" Colbert said. “Is this news, or a reality show?

“I don't want to watch 'America's Got 1040s.'”

He did, however, have a joke.

In his “SPECIAL REPORT,” the one in which he pulled a Maddow, Colbert began to tell his joke:

“Why did the chicken — but first, a word about chickens!”

It was actually multiple words, about chickens and Russians and roads.

There was also a live chicken, on Colbert's desk.

“Whether or not you're a Trump supporter, whether or not you've heard this joke before, it ought to give you pause that after all this building, I still haven't gotten to the punchline,” Colbert finally said.

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Another breaking news banner flashed: “PREAMBLE GOING ON WAY TOO LONG.”

“So without further ado,” he continued, “why did the chicken cross the road?”

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He paused.

“The answer ... right after this break.”

For her part, Maddow — who sat down with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday — was a good sport about Colbert's sendup.