What hath God (or late-night TV chat shows) wrought? If you’ve existed on the internet over the last month, you’ve probably seen “Hi Stranger,” Kirsten Lepore’s creepy, ASMR-ish bit of stop-motion about a doughy fellow with a healthy case of bubble butt trying to seduce you into relaxing with him. Most people find Lepore’s video a mixture of soothing and disturbing, but Stephen Colbert and his Late Show writers apparently went looking for a way to minimize the former and maximize the latter last night, by merging the video with a thong-clad President Donald Trump.
Hi Stranger from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.
Initially, at least, the switch from stop-motion to traditional animation actually makes things a little less creepy. (There’s just something about the way the figure in “Hi Stranger” moves that gives us the willies.) But Colbert’s version is definitely way less dreamily pleasant, especially when he starts talking. If the whole point of “Hi Stranger” is to lure the viewer into a sort of animated boyfriend trance, Colbert’s video has exactly the opposite effect, as Trump summons up his failed healthcare bill and can’t manage to hold on to his soporific cool. Congratulations to The Late Show team, then, for finding a way to make the internet’s weirdest video even less pleasant to watch.