Thursday night marked the triumphant return of the “Better Know A District” segment on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” – complete with the comedian taking a tumble from a pink bike while riding in the hallways of the Longworth House Office Building.
This is the first “Better Know A District” episode Colbert has filmed in some time, mainly because many members of Congress are concerned with how the comedian will frame them. In 2006, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi advised fellow Democrats to stay away from the segment. Eventually Pelosi did come around and appear in the segment last year.
Colbert’s segment last night featured freshman Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, whose eastern Pennsylvania district includes parts of Scranton and Easton. Cartwright acknowledge that he was instructed by Democratic leadership to appear on the show, because he “can avoid looking silly better than others.”
“I think that’s why it’s vetted through House leadership,” Cartwright told the Pottsville Republican Herald. “It was an honor they had confidence in me to handle myself in that kind of pratfall-laden territory. I was filled with trepidation, of course, but I’m ever interested in promoting our region to the rest of the nation. So, I screwed up my courage and I did it.”
Colbert took the bike ride and subsequent tumble after admitting to Cartwright that he never learned how to ride a bike growing up.
“Would you be willing to teach me?” Colbert asked Cartwright, feigning shyness.
The congressman then graciously guided Colbert — on his infamous pink bike — down the hallways of the Longworth House Office Building while congressional staff and tourists looked on with their cameras and smartphones. But as soon as Cartwright let go of the steering wheel, Colbert crash landed into a nearby wall.
Colbert and Cartwright also talked about a colorful landmark in Pennsylvania’s “Fightin’ Seventeenth” – the Crayola factory in Easton, otherwise known as the headquarters of America’s favorite 64-pack of crayons.
“How do you feel about the recent plans to rename the white crayon Republican?” Colbert asked Cartwright.
“I do not agree with that,” Cartwright replied with a straight face.
Who knows what stunts Colbert will pull off if he ends up profiling his sister on the show in the near future?
Watch Colbert’s bicycle adventure below:
