When in doubt, mock Melania.

That seems to be the motto for Stephen Colbert, the late-night liberal pundit who masquerades as a “comedian” on weeknights on CBS.

Since liberal esteem for women depends on political preferences, Colbert isn’t hindered by any of the faux respect for the fairer sex demanded by the #MeToo mob, which gives him carte blanche to attack first lady Melania Trump whenever the spirit moves him — or a dearth of decent material makes him desperate.

But Colbert’s lame attempt at comedy at the expense of Melania on Monday night didn’t go unanswered, as White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham used a Daily Caller interview to call Colbert out.

And she had plenty of support on social media.

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“Here we go again — an irrelevant late-night talk show host mocking the first lady, when her main focus is serving the American people,” Grisham told The Daily Caller.

Grisham was responding to comments Colbert made at the top of his monologue on Martin Luther King Day, using the famed civil rights leader’s martyrdom to imply that the first lady was stuck in an unhappy marriage to President Donald Trump

“Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” Colbert told his audience.

“Beautiful day, beautiful day. Beautiful day to celebrate, beautiful message to remember.”

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And then he segued into attacking the Trumps — because that’s what Colbert does.

“Both the president and the first lady noted the day on Twitter. Melania’s tweet was short and sweet,” he said.

Colbert then aped a grotesque version of Mrs. Trump’s melodious accent to read her tweet aloud — to the juvenile giggles of his intellectually and morally stunted audience.

Then he got to the punch line.

“She really relates to Dr. King’s message, especially the part about wanting to be free at last,” he said. “Think I heard, I don’t know. It’s what I heard.”

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Check it out here. (The Melania part lasts about a minute. Feel free to cut it off after that.)

It’s not easy to insult a woman’s marriage, her intellect and her accent in only a few seconds, but Colbert managed to put together the string without seeming to try — almost like he likes being insulting for its own sake.

The cymbal-smashing monkeys in Colbert’s audience might have pretended the insults were funny, but Grisham wasn’t buying it.

“His comments were disgraceful, and certainly not original, but that doesn’t seem to matter when you’re hurting for ratings,” she said.

It’s important to note that Grisham’s career has put her in closer contact with the first lady than most White House press secretaries enjoy with the East Wing.

She was Melania Trump’s communications director before moving over to the press secretary job.

So there’s a good chance she knows Melania Trump’s qualities better than most, and certainly better than a cretin like Colbert.

A good number of social media users backed up her distaste for the comic’s jokes (though there were the usual libs, of course, cymbal-smashing away):

Little Stephen, little in stature and in mind. Stephen Colbert Spends MLK Day Mocking Melania Trump: She Wants to Be ‘Free at Last’ https://t.co/7tLhjePRxT #SmartNews — Raymond De Hont (@RJRDBoomer) January 22, 2020

Ignorant. Vile. Reprehensible. He makes gutters look like a step up. https://t.co/GcVvexx88b via @BreitbartNews — DogWhisperer (@cannotrunfast) January 21, 2020

You are so disgusting! Stephen Colbert Spends MLK Day Mocking Melania Trump https://t.co/4eszCr54OL via @thedailybeast — Bobbie Painter (@bpainter22) January 22, 2020

Grisham was obviously right about Colbert’s comments being “disgraceful.”

If he had put on a Hispanic accent while mocking a Mexican immigrant, there would have been hell to pay.

As for being original — originality isn’t necessary for a guy who’s basically built his career since 2016 by making Democratic hackery a staple of his performances.

Unfortunately, though, Grisham might have misstated Colbert’s place in the ratings.

Thanks mainly to his one-trick pony act of reflexive Trump animus, and an audience fed a daily diet of the mainstream media’s liberal propaganda, Colbert was at the top of the late-night comedy ratings in the last quarter of 2019, according to the entertainment industry website Broadway World.

That’s not a tribute to good taste — or to the intellect of the Trump-hating portion of the American public.

But it does show Colbert is smart enough, and slimy enough, to realize that when in doubt, it pays to mock Melania.

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