There is simply nobody more qualified than Stephen Colbert to commemorate Bill O’Reilly’s ouster by Fox News. As the Late Show host said yesterday, “I owe a lot to Bill O’ Reilly. I spent nine years playing a character based largely on him.”

As Colbert acknowledges, they didn’t agree about anything but “he has been a guest on this show and I take no pleasure in his downfall. I’m not going to publicly gloat.” He then asks the producers to take the camera off him so he can gloat privately. Moments later comes a “satellite” appearance by “O’Reilly’s biggest fan, conservative pundit Stephen Colbert.”

Yes, that guy is back again, standing in front of a log structure somewhere in the woods — with an invitation for “Papa Bear” to join him and Jon Stewart in their mountain hideaway, delivered in the most seductive terms.

Back on set, the real Colbert has a few words about the New England Patriots’ visit to the White House and the Georgia Sixth Congressional District primary. It’s all fun, even if O’Reilly was truly “a self-righteous landfill of angry garbage.”