Richard Clarke Episode Recap

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Synopsis

TONIGHT: Stephen Colbert welcomes the author of The Scorpion's Gate, Richard Clarke!

Full Recap

The show opens with a teaser of content from the show, which involves everything from Richard Clarke to the death penalty.

Stephen starts off the show by talking about something he discussed with yesterday's episode, Rick Springfield returning to General Hospital. It seems Stephen hasn't been able to get the song, Jessie's Girl out of his head since, and starts singing it, but when he can't remember a line, he turns to Bobby, but he doesn't know it, so he turns to Rick Springfield, who is off-stage, with a guitar, and he sings the next line for Stephen.

Stephen transitions to the Winter Olympics, which he's really excited about. He's already got tickets to all 200,000 bi-athalons.

Stephen then moves onto the death penalty. This brings us to tonight's edition of "The Word", which is "Spectacle". Stephen favors the death penalty, while the support for the death penalty is dropping all the time.

Back from commercial, Stephen starts the "Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger" segment. Seattle gets a Tip of the Hat as it was named the top literacy city, but then got a Wag of the Finger for two monorail cars colliding. The Rock and Roll HOF was given a Wag of the Finger for the choice of inductees, and Sotheby's Auction House received a Wag of the Finger for overpricing a George Washington Portrait, which didn't sell.

Back from commercial, Stephen apologizes for a mistake in the previous segment. Stephen then introduces tonight's guest, Richard Clarke. Their discussion is about his new book, The Scorpion's Gate.

Stephen ends the show by talking about a face transplant which took place in France. Stephen chooses to give thanks to all of the plastic surgeons out there. Stephen honors them by placing a breast implant on one of his shelves, but Stephen can't help but hold onto that breast implant.