Sure, these days Stephen Colbert is more about unpacking the day’s worth of traitorous bigotry and naked malfeasance issuing from the maw of Donald Trump than goofing about and making people feel uncomfortable in the field as he did back in his Daily Show days. But, perhaps imbued with the spirit of former Ed Sullivan Theater occupant David Letterman (Dave’s not dead, just on Netflix), Friday’s Late Show saw Colbert mixing in a few old school, field-piece shenanigans. As was Letterman’s way, the bit saw the Kentucky-based metal band Flaw receiving an undeniably useful bit of charitable goodwill from Colbert, with the only cost being willing to act as collective butt of some good-natured japery. Yes, Flaw fans—Flaw has a new van!
Providing context for the bit, Colbert flashed back to his April monologue, where his mockery of a proposal to crowdfund Trump’s racist Game Of Thrones wall on the Mexican border saw him using Flaw’s heartfelt plea for a new tour van as comic illustration. Again, in Letterman fashion, Colbert returned to the very real band’s plight for another random joke a month later, this time about billionaire Jeff Bezos complaining that he doesn’t know how to spend his overworked, un-unionized warehouse of Amazon cash. (Dude, Flaw needed a van…) Alas, as Colbert revealed, even his offhand asides failed to help the hard-working nü-metal would-be rock gods reach their modest 15 thousand dollar goal, so Colbert (and CBS, presumably) just went and bought Flaw a van.
Naturally, the toll must be paid for any act of late-night largesse, so the gamely grinning members of Flaw (Rob, Tommy, Chris, George, and Dan—“the tall one”) played along while Colbert unveiled the very used but serviceable new tour vehicle of their mid-level dreams. Sure, it didn’t appear to have a working tape player, and that discarded latex glove in the back was unnerving, but Colbert provided Flaw with the very best in ironic parents’ basement decor, including fuzzy throw pillows, beanbag chairs, a cactus, and a tour kitty. Oh, and a Flaw-loving mom on hand for post-gig encouragement. And, okay, the CBS-plugging Young Sheldon, Bull, and Kevin Can Wait swag might not scream metal, but they did get a Roomba out of the deal, and there’s nothing cooler than a robot butler.
You can catch Flaw at these upcoming tour dates—which they will definitely be able to get to.