Stephen Colbert on #CancelColbert: 'We almost lost me'

Stephen Colbert used his entire Comedy Central show Monday to address an out-of-context tweet last week that kicked off the #CancelColbert campaign. Update: Watch video from the episode below.

The show started with a hilarious montage showing The Colbert Report shutting down, the lights going out, a flower wilting, scenes of the apocalypse, the famous crying Indian — all while Adagio for Strings played over the images. Then Colbert “woke up” from his bad dream and did his show.

“This was close!” Colbert exclaimed to a cheering studio audience. “We almost lost me. I’m never going to take me for granted ever again …the interweb tried to swallow me whole but I am proud to say that I got lodged in its throat and it hacked me back up like a hastily-chewed chicken wing. I’m still here. The dark forces’ attempt to silence my message of core conservative principles mixed with youth friendly product placement have been thwarted.”

He then pulled out a bottle of Bud Light and threw back a few gulps.

For those who may have missed the coverage, #CancelColbert began when a Twitter activist took out of context a line from Thursday’s episode in which Colbert mocked Redskins owner Dan Snyder for creating a foundation to help Native Americans. In response, Colbert launched the “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.” But the tweet that went out via @ColbertReport left out the pertinent set up:

Colbert, who couldn’t respond until Monday’s episode because his show is dark on Fridays, said the tweet kicked off a massive amount of attention on TV and online. He said CNN even broke from its coverage of the missing Malaysian airplane to address the brouhaha. “Who would have thought a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstandings?

“When I saw tweet with no context, I understand how people were offended,” Colbert added.

The comedian then hosted Twitter founder Biz Stone, who was there to promote his new book and to “blow up” the account that sent out the controversial tweet. (Colbert only tweets from @StephenatHome.

“When you founded Twitter, did you do it just to attack me?” Colbert asked Stone.

Earlier in the night, Colbert tried to promote a new hashtag via his account that has over 6 million followers: #NotCanceled.