'When’s the delivery food coming?' Huntsman joked on 'The Colbert Report.' | AP Photos Colbert cuts Huntsman China gaffe

A less-than-tasteful joke was edited out of Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s appearance on “The Colbert Report.”

When the show played a stereotypical Chinese musical jingle, Huntsman joked, “When’s the delivery food coming?” After a few moments of awkward silence, host Stephen Colbert asked the former U.S. ambassador to China, “Did that go over well in Beijing?”


That portion of the interview caused the crowd to groan and was later cut from the Monday night broadcast because of time reasons, ABC News reports.

Huntsman did get the audience back on his side later in the interview, though. When Colbert asked Huntsman to say something nice in Chinese, Huntsman complied by saying in Mandarin that Colbert should consider being his vice presidential running mate, prompting prolonged cheers by the audience.

Huntsman also joked that he was ready for his poll numbers to jump after his appearance on “The Colbert Report.”

“I am so ready for the Colbert bump,” Huntsman said. Colbert responded, “Governor, you may be at two percent. We’re going to get you up to whole milk.”

After the taping, Huntsman said he thought he did well.

“I think we got a passing grade. We didn’t screw it up. I don’t think I offended too many people. Maybe there was a memorable line or two that will actually show up on television over the next couple of days, and if so, we might get that famous [Colbert] bump,” Huntsman told TIME’s Mark Halperin.

The interview featured some discussion about more serious issues as well.

Addressing the topic of his Mormonism, a religion that has been criticized as a “cult” during the campaign, Huntsman said that Kennedy’s Catholicism also was a subject of scorn during his 1960 election, and noted that “you get in a whole lot of trouble talking about religion, so you should never go there, particularly when you’re seeking votes and running for public office.”

Huntsman stressed unity in the United States, and pointed out that in his 2008 reelection for Utah governor he won majorities among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

“This is an important time for us to all pull together as Americans,” Huntsman said. “It is unnatural and it’s unhealthy for the most blue-sky optimistic people in the world, we as Americans, to be as divided as we are today,” he said.