Stephen Colbert jokes This election reminds him of how the Romans felt 'when Vesuvius tried to get re-elected'

A deeply concerned Stephen Colbert had a vivid metaphor for the general atmosphere on the final night before Election Day 2024 during his monologue on Monday’s “The Late Show.”

“We are all, in some sense, about to witness history, good or bad,” Colbert said. “I suspect this is how the people of Pompeii felt when Vesuvius tried to get re-elected.”

Continuing the joke, Colbert pretended to be an ancient Roman official and added, “Okay, if the ash cloud goes that way, we’ll celebrate.” When the ash cloud comes our way, everyone adopts a cool attitude. I’m doing Charlie’s Angels.’

“Obviously I don’t know what’s going to happen, which is why it’s times like these that you turn to the experts,” Colbert continued. “So what, what do the polls have to say?”

He then showed a clip of experts weighing in: “It’s a toss-up”; “It looks like a photo finish”; “a dead heat”; “a dead heat”; “a dead heat”; “It’s too close to call”; “Far too close to call.”

“You’re way too useless,” an annoyed Colbert interjected. “Grow some cowards. I could get a clearer prediction of a magic eight ball.

Then he pulled out a real magic 8 ball. But when he looked at the response, he reported that it said “Jill Stein 2024.” Yes.

There’s clearly a lot more to the monologue, and you can watch the whole thing below: