Corporate lawyers argue over whether Colbert can be Colbert

Fans of “Stephen Colbert”, the pundit-parodying host of the now-defunct The Colbert Report, were delighted to see the return of the character on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show last week.

“What can I do?” he continued.

Colbert joked, “The lawyers have spoken”. I can not reasonably argue that I own my own face and name. “Which is surprising”, he noted, “because I never considered that guy much of an intellectual”.

Instead, the late-night personality brought in “Stephen Colbert’s identical twin cousin”, Stephen Colbert on Wednesday. In honor of the recent Republican National Convention, the old “Stephen Colbert” returned for a few segments on CBS.

Colbert also introduced a similar-but-legally-distinct version of his famous “The Word” segment, appropriately titled “The Werd”. He would not specify which company that is but sources indicate it is Comedy Central parent (and former CBS corporate sibling) Viacom. A representatives from Comedy Central didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Watch the introduction of the newest Stephen Colbert in the video above.

“You might have to vote for a person you don’t really want”, he said of the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He introduced a new character named Stephen Colbert, who is the identical cousin of the character from Comedy Central.

“Our moms were identical twins who married identical twin husbands, who had sex at exactly the same moment, and gave us the same name”, he said.

“Stephen, Bernie likes to tell it like it is, which is also what I do when I’m alone and no one is watching”, she explains to Colbert.