Stephen Colbert Shares Proof of ‘How Mess Up Things Are’ in ‘Late Show’ Monologue

On Tuesday’s (February 18) episode of The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert joked that things are so bad right now that the “lightest” news story he could find to open his monologue with involved a plane crash.

The late-night host was referring to the terrifying Delta jet crash on Monday (February 17), which saw an aircraft carrying 80 people crash land in Toronto, flip over and end up upside down. Miraculously, everyone survived. “That’s why it’s light,” Colbert quipped.

“I’m feeling a little stressed these days,” Colbert said at the top of Tuesday’s show. “People say, ‘How do you keep your spirit up?’ You know, we get together with the writers, thinking about what happened today, we talk things out, have a little fun, and to do that, whenever we can, we like to do a light story at the top of the monologue, just to ease into things.”

“Do you want to know how messed up things are?” he continued. “The lightest story in the news is a plane crash.”

Colbert showed video footage of the crash, which showed the plane on its back on the runway. “Remember the good old days when it was just doors flying off the thing? I miss that,” Colbert quipped. “Seeing that plane upside down just feels wrong. It’s like running into your teacher at the grocery store… and they’re upside down and on fire.”

He also referenced reports of what led to the crash, noting how there were wind gusts of 40 miles per hour on the ground that were even stronger in the air.

“Now, to deal with the high winds, the pilots apparently attempted something that is known as a ‘crab maneuver,’ which involves turning the plane into the wind, then directly onto the runway at the last moment, and not as I thought, when you land the plane like this,” Colbert said before walking side to side flapping his hands like a crab.

He then played footage of the crash aftermath taken by one of the survivors, who continued to repeat “Holy f***!” as he watched the horrifying scene unfold.

“That was also his answer on the post-flight survey,” Colbert joked, showing a “How was your flight?” questionnaire filled out with the words “Holy f***! Holy f***! Holy f***!”

Colbert went on to touch on the controversy surrounding New York City mayor Eric Adams. Last week, a top prosecutor in Manhattan alleged that Adams had asked the Trump administration to drop a corruption case against him in exchange for his cooperation in immigration enforcement.

Since then, four of Adams’ eight deputy mayors have announced their resignations, leading Colbert to joke, “The resignations were from the first deputy mayor, deputy mayor for health and human services, deputy mayor for operations, and deputy mayor for public safety. So, at this point, the city is evidently being run by the remaining deputy mayor: 100 rats in a trench coat.”

You can watch Colbert’s full opening monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.