Remember when the Turkish government put a man on trial for comparing the Turkish president to Gollum? And then the court adjourned because no one had actually seen enough of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit to determine if Gollum were evil? When this news made its way to Stephen Colbert, the Late Show host used his position as a television authority to do exactly what we’d expect: geek out about the intricacies of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world. This is neither the first nor certainly the last time Colbert has done so, but this time, it’s for the greater good.
All kidding aside, Colbert looked disturbed at the notion that a man could be jailed for up to two years for posting an Internet meme mocking his country’s leader. And while he was unfortunately not one of the experts chosen to conduct a character study on Gollum, Colbert still did his best Atticus Finch impression on the courtroom of being on television to make his case: It wasn’t Gollum in those photos, it was poor, corrupted Sméagol.
