Words in The Title Sequence
During the title sequence for the show a bunch of words can be seen, usually words describing patriotic characteristics. The last word shown changes from time to time, sometimes changed specifically for a particular episode. With the current title sequence, Stephen is seen jumping over this last word while giving a sort of "battle-cry" and holding an American flag.
| "Word/phrase" | General episode dates they appeared* | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Grippy | Oct 05+ | |
| Megamerican | Feb 06+ | |
| Lincolnish | 4/17/06+ | |
| Superstantial | 9/11/06+ | A play on substantial. Start of season 2. |
| Freem | Jan 07+ | |
| Eneagled | 2/26/07+ | |
| Flagaphile | 4/9/07+ | |
| Good | 7/16/07+ | |
| Gutly | 9/10/07+ | |
| Warrior-poet | 10/29/07+ | |
| President Bush Have a Hotdog with Me | 3/10/08-7/17/08 | The previous week, Bush had a "hot dog date" with John McCain, and Stephen claimed this invitation was in his opening and he was snubbed. |
| Self-Evident | 4/14/08-4/17/08 | When visible, during convention coverage |
| Rock On! | 7/16/08 | Rush was a guest |
| Multi-Grain | 7/21/08+ | |
| Vote | 10/15/08+ | |
| Factose Intolerant | 11/5/08+ | A play on lactose intolerant |
| Colmes-Free Since 2009 | 1/6/09+ | A reference to Alan Colmes, the liberal counterpart to Sean Hannity on the Fox News Hannity & Colmes show. Colmes was basically a prop for Fox to label the show as "Fair and Balanced", while Hannity did most of the talking. Colbert ran a "Colbert and Colmes" segment when Colmes retired from the show. |
| Seven-Inch Gangly Wrench | 2/4/09 | A nod to episode-long guest Steve Martin |
| Juice It! | 2/5/09+ | |
| Purple-Mounted | 4/20/09+ | A reference to "Purple mounted majesties" in the first verse of America the Beautiful |
| 346X | 5/4/09 | In the interview of evening guest, it was brought up how J. J. Abrams liked to place hidden "clues" within his TV works which would somehow relate to some of the mysteries of the particular show. After it was hinted he had placed various "clues" in this episode, various random symbols/messages appeared, and the 346x can be inferred to be connected these clues, suggesting that clues together could form some sort of secret meaning. |
| Farewellison | 9/17/09 | A farewell to executive producer Allison |
| Fundit | 9/22/09+ | Fun + pundit |
| Applepious | 1/4/10+ | Beginning the new opening for HD |
| Libertease | 3/29/10+ | A portmanteau a "liberty" and "tease" |
| SCILF | 6/1/10+ | As in MILF |
| Flurpy | 7/5/10 | Stephen did the whole show sick, with several pre-taped segments, presumably feeling "flurpy" |
| TBD | 8/2/10-8/4/10 | To be determined |
| Überballed | 8/5/10+ | |
| Army of Won | 9/8/10 | Armed forces special part 1 |
| Ready, Vet, Go! | 9/9/10' | Armed forces special part 2 |
| Heterosapien | 9/13/10+ | , despite the term "Homo sapiens" being two words and having an "s" |
| Cinco de Me-o | 10/25/10 | In honor of the 5-year anniversary of the Report, which happened during a week off |
| March Madness | 10/26/10 | Referring to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear to occur the following Saturday on October 30 in Washington, D.C. |
| Let Feardom Ring | 10/27/10 | |
| When Scary Met Rally | 10/28/10 | |
| Fearnix Rising | 11/1/10 | |
| Hang 2010 | 11/2/10 | Live Election Night special |
| Batter-Fried | 11/3/10-11/4/10 | |
| Downtrickler | 11/8/10+ | |
| Thankstaking | 11/18/10 | Last show before Thanksgiving |
| Christmust | 11/29/10 | First show after Thanksgiving |
| Deck the balls | 12/7/10+ | |
| Van Gogh-Getter | 12/8/10 | Episode focusing on Stephen's art project |
| Lad Liberty | 1/3/11-2/3/11 | |
| Yay-Hole | 2/14/11-3/10/11 | |
| Winning! | 2/28/11 | In reference to Charlie Sheen's outrageous interviews about the controversy of his frequent partying and then subsequent hiatus of his popular show, Two and a Half Men. |
| Strong Swimmer | 3/21/11-4/14/11 | |
| Word Hurdler | 4/25/11-5/19/11 | Literally referring to his jumping over these word phrases in the title sequence. |
| I'm in England | 4/28/11 | Part of Colbert's attempt to convince people he was in England to attend the British Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which was to occur the following morning. |
| Win Laden | 5/2/11 | Referring to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden, announced the previous night. |
| Pacman | 5/31/11 | Referring to the Super PAC, ColbertPAC (Colbert Super Pac), Colbert was trying to and subsequently did form while also relating to the popular arcade video game and brand Pac-Man |
| #hashtag | 6/1/11 | The lettering is actually in all lowercase when normally they are in all capital letters |
| #ivebeenhacked | 6/2/11 | Referred to Rep. Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal when Weiner accidentally tweeted an inappropriate photo of his penis, although it was inside his underwear (but still explicit, especially for a government official), with his Twitter account. At this time Weiner had claimed his account was hacked and then the hacker tweeted the photo. However Weiner did not outright deny it was a picture of him, stating he could not with, quote, "certitude" say it was a photo of him or not. Stephen then on his own Twitter account posted a string of 16 "tweets" with links to photos while stating similarly, "I cannot say with certitude that this is not part of my body." The photos were typically various outrageous and humorous pictures that obviously were not human body parts, male or otherwise, or made suggestive references to "inappropriate" parts of the (male) human body. He included in all these posts the hashtag: #ivebeenhacked. The letters in this phrase were all lowercase as well. |
| #iwasnthacked | 6/6/11 | This followed Anthony Weiner's press conference admitting the indecent photo posted on his Twitter account was indeed accidentally done by him and the photo was of him taken by himself. He also admitted that he was lying when he claimed his account had been hacked. The letters were again in all lowercase. |
| Your Ad Here | 6/7/11+ | |
| Less Talk, More Rock | 6/20/11-6/23/11 | Commemorating "Stephest Cobechella '011." |
| Tighty Righty | 6/27/11- | |
| From C to Silent T | -11/17/11 11/30/11, 12/1/11 |
Referring to pronunciation of Stephen's last name and to the last line of the song, America the Beautiful ("From sea to shining sea"). |
| Consubstantial? | 11/28/11 11/29/11 |
Shown after the revised Catholic mass began to use this word during the profession of faith with the question mark signifying the confusion felt by many Catholics attending mass the previous Sunday. This topic and specifically this word were brought up and discussed on the November 29 Tuesday episode on Colbert's segment, "Yahweh or No Way." |
| Frankeincensed | 12/5/11-12/15/11 | A portmanteau of sorts of frankincense and incensed |
| Caucus Tease | 1/3/12 | A play on the phrase of cock tease with the Iowa Republican Caucus that occurred that day (see also: Caucus, Iowa caucuses, United States presidential primary) |
| Star-Freckled | 1/4/12-1/9/12 | Reference to "star-spangled" as in The Star-Spangled Banner |
| Uptrodden | 1/10/12- | As opposed to "downtrodden" |
| O Stephen, Where Art Thou? | 2/20/12 | Referencing to the two canceled shows the previous week on Feb. 15 and 16 where Stephen reportedly left New York to see his mom who was reportedly ill though the illness wasn't disclosed. Feb. 20 was the first show for the next week and the first show back since his departure, which he addressed a little and aired before the start of the actual show. The phrase is a direct reference to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
| National Manthem | -5/10/12 | A play on national anthem |
| Smartyr | 5/28/12-6/28/12 | A portmanteau of smart(er) and martyr |
| Freedominant | 7/16/12- | A portmanteau of freedom and dominant |
| Rock the Boat | 8/13/12 | A series of references to music for the StePhest Colbchella '012 Rocktaugustfest during this week. Rock the boat and shiprocked refer to the festival's venue, the Intrepid. The third day's references "these go to eleven" from the movie This is Spinal Tap and to the "'012" in the festival's name. Conservative bass is a play on the term "conservative base". |
| This One Goes to '012 | 8/14/12 | |
| Shiprocked | 8/15/12 | |
| Conservative Bass | 8/16/12 | |
| Eleven Dark Thirty | 1/7/13- | Play on the movie title of Zero Dark Thirty to refer to the East Coast airing time of new episodes for the show at 11:30 PM ET (the "dark" referring to the airings being at night, also the new episodes first air at 11:30 PM PT for the Pacific Coast feeds of The Colbert Report). |
| Sorry, Pitt! | 1/21/13 | Referring to Colbert's cancellation of his January 18 scheduled appearance to the University of Pittsburgh because he reportedly came down with the flu shortly after his last show of the week the previous day. Colbert's scheduled visit was for the students at the university who successfully completed the show's treasure hunt set out the previous Spring for colleges that formed student chapters of his Colbert Super PAC. The show is reportedly planning on rescheduling his visit. |
| As Seen on Twitter | -3/7/13 | |
| Me Pluribus Unum | 3/25/13- | From E pluribus unum on the Great Seal of the United States and a common motto for the United States. |
*ordered by the episode date in which the word/phrase first appeared or the date of its only appearance
Read more about this topic: Recurring Segments On The Colbert Report
Famous quotes containing the words words in, words, title and/or sequence:
“You may read any quantity of books, and you may almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don’t have, at the back of your minds, the change for words in definite images which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“We could not help contrasting the equanimity of Nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words and actions presume always a crisis near at hand, but she is forever silent and unpretending.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Et in Arcadia ego.
[I too am in Arcadia.]”
—Anonymous, Anonymous.
Tomb inscription, appearing in classical paintings by Guercino and Poussin, among others. The words probably mean that even the most ideal earthly lives are mortal. Arcadia, a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese, Greece, was the rustic abode of Pan, depicted in literature and art as a land of innocence and ease, and was the title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance (1590)
“It isn’t that you subordinate your ideas to the force of the facts in autobiography but that you construct a sequence of stories to bind up the facts with a persuasive hypothesis that unravels your history’s meaning.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)