Stephen Colbert’s “Stephen Colbert” character was one of the greatest satirical creations of all time, but it was always pretty clear that he had a big sensitive heart underneath all of that irony. Plus, he played Neutral Milk Hotel after the Colbert Report finale, so we know he’s pretty cool. However, a new clip released by Colbert’s Late Show proves that he’s way cooler and has a way bigger heart than we had ever realized.
Apparently, Colbert does a little Q&A segment before taping his show every night, and an audience member recently asked him how he knew that his wife was “the one.” As you can see in the clip below, Colbert isn’t sure if he wants to tell the story at first, but he quickly caves and recounts the sort of meet cute that How I Met Your Mother’s Ted Mosby would’ve killed for. Basically, Colbert realized he didn’t want to marry his girlfriend at the time, so he visited his mom and ended up going to see a play. After the show, he caught the eye of a woman who he realized he knew as a kid. They end up talking for a while, and—naturally, given Colbert’s reputation as a literary nerd—the rest of the story involves the son of a poet Colbert liked at the time and a deep-cut reference to The Odyssey.