Members of the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert audience revealed in a series of tweets on Thursday that haters of independent ride-sharing service Uber attempted to shout down a guest during the taping of the show. The interruptions were not aired, but Twitter users described the events in detail.
At Colbert, audience member started protesting the Uber CEO. Amazing how Colbert just let him speak.
— Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) September 10, 2015 Two separate times during the interview with Uber guy, some cabbies in the balcony yelled stuff and interrupted the conversation.
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 They were criticizing Uber's disruption of the NYC cab system, and they were very aggressive and made everyone rather uncomfortable.
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 The guest was Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick. The rude audience members were New York cabbies, according to some audience members. Others describe them simply as "fans" of taxis in New York, if that is a thing. Host Colbert apparently dealt calmly with the protesters and restored calm, but nevertheless aired their grievances directly to the Uber CEO.
Instead of having the men removed, Stephen acted with complete respect and control. He listened intently to what they had to say.
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 He then turned back to the interview and addressed exactly what the man had yelled about. It was very smooth. The whole thing was cut, tho.
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 his arm and quieted both him and the cab driver in the balcony. He said that he would ask the man's question "in a more respectful way."
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 Then he again respectfully asked the man to sit down, and he asked exactly what the man had yelled about. Very, very smooth transition.
— Sarah (@falpal_sarah) September 11, 2015 It is highly doubtful that a heckler of say, Barack Obama, would have his or her voice heard through the host's mouth, to say the least. Or even be allowed to remain in the studio.
Buzzfeed contributor Rachel Zarrell was in the audience and made some particularly interesting observations.
A thing I was very impressed with today during Colbert's interview w Uber CEO is he never loses control — it's clear the convo is always his
— Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) September 11, 2015 And he's OK with tough questions. Like, is it for the good of humans to have surge pricing on during a crisis? (Which they have)
— Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) September 11, 2015 They basically edited this Uber interview to only use the quotes that make him sound insane.
— Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) September 11, 2015 To summarize, hecklers shouted at a guest because he continues to dare to defy a leftist sacred cow, the host of the show took their heckles and challenged the guest with them, and then the editors trimmed the segment, getting rid of the noisy rabble and clipping the guest to make him sound bad. Welcome to Stephen Colbert's Late Show, folks.
h/t Jim Swift