Stephen Colbert seems to have really done a number on his face when he appeared on this evening’s edition of The Colbert Report. The face injury happened sometime between Thursday and Monday’s shows, and includes facial bruising around the eye area, three stitches between his eyebrows, and swelling of the nose. No news as to what actually happened, but we do have this screencap, for those who want to be really, really sad for him.
Poor Stephen. In all seriousness, I really want to wish him a speedy recovery. That looks painful as hell.
(h/t ColbertPics)
Edited to add: There’s updated news on the injury saga here.
Ouch! Poor Stephen. That looks painful.
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Speedy recovery, hon. :(
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I feel awful for Stephen. I’m sure it hurt terribly and facial wounds tend to bleed, so it must have been a real mess when it happened. The cuts look like it was a glasses-on mishap.
Before I knew him, my husband was in a motorcycle accident and landed on his face (he had a helmet but no faceguard). He told me he lost the skin on his nose and upper lip and his mouth had to be wired shut for weeks.
When he told me I said that he was very lucky he didn’t break all the bones in his face like Tuff Hedeman, so all considered, the scars he ended up with weren’t bad.
When I saw Stephen’s stitches and black eye, as much as I was at first horrified, I was quickly grateful that the injuries themselves were “relatively” minor. In that area of the face, it could have been much worse.
*prayer of thanks to God*
Stephen’s eyes looked remarkably good, considering both of them were clearly bruised underneath.
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Those sort of bruises he had under his eyes usually appear when you’ve taken a blow to the forehead and the blood from the broken vessels beneath the skin seeps down under the eyes to form bruises there. No actual injury to the eyes is necessary. I’ve had bruises under my eyes almost exactly like that after accidentally getting hit in the head by an iron bar while sunbathing. (Don’t even ask.)
Maybe that was what Stephen was doing?
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I once hit myself in the middle of the forehead bouncing a steel pogo stick up and down. When you were hit with the iron bar, did you end up with a bruise on your forehead in addition to the black eyes?
The location of the injury indicates that the forehead could have been involved. Any blow had to have been fairly even distributed because no obvious swelling or bruising of the forehead was evident. (Even with makeup, the closeup zoom would have revealled it.)
Who knows? We hope Colbert injuries don’t pull a hat-trick this year.
I remember that day because I like Summer Solstice, it is close to my birthday. I was listening to EWF’s “That’s the Way of the World.” The injury happened on water. What can I say?
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Awww… the poor dear.
He still seemed in good spirits, so I don’t think it’s too serious.
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It certainly does look painful. Best wishes to Stephen for a speedy recovery.
I think we need to put June 21st on notice.
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I second that! June 21st belongs up there with bears and distractions…
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I totally agree. Let’s get that On Notice board out again! Get well soon, Stephen!
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OUCH! I’ve gotten deep cuts from accidents while wearing glasses–mostly from high-impact sports–but I’ve never needed stitches on my face before.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
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Even though he didn’t point it out, I noticed some discoloration under his left eye also, tho not near as bad as that under his right.
I’d like to think he was horsing around with his kids, but I think if it was that he would’ve referenced it but boasted about how strong one of his kids had become, or something like that.
Since he DIDN’T mention it, I have a feeling it was something embarrassing (even for him) like tripping over one of his kids’ toys.
Did anyone else half-expect him to pull out a nose-bridge strong bracelet?!?
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oh he’ll think of some way to milk this… real or not =P
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Wouldn’t it have to be a nose ring?
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One of those breathe-easy strips…?
http://breatheright.co.uk/
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I bet he fell off a Segway while choking on a pretzel as a tribute to our president.
In all seriousness, I hope that the injuries aren’t as painful as they look and that the rest of the family is uninjured!
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I thought there was something different about him during the Toss. Definitely not what I was expecting though.
It must have been something pretty bad or embarrassing for him to not explain it. Considering the fact that he doesn’t seem to have any problem showing footage of himself slipping and falling in front of a couple hundred people, that’s kind of scary. Poor fella.
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He said it happened on Saturday. That would have given him a couple of days to get back to the usual energetic self he was on the show tonight.
He also said that after breaking his wrist last year he wasn’t using his hands to protect himself anymore — he was using his face. That makes it sound as though he might have walked into a door or something like that.
And there hasn’t been anything in the news, so it doesn’t seem as though it happened in a very public place.
He could have done something like walk into a glass door that he didn’t realize was there. I came close to doing that once and realized only at the last minute that I was about to crash into a closed door.
Anyway, he does seem to be doing well, and I hope all continues to go well for him.
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Ouch – hope quirking his brow isn’t too uncomfortable for him, I know he did it once at the top of the show but not too much after.
My guess is as good as anyones, but it looks like he got schooled playing Hiphopketball with those safety glasses on … now that I’m watching the clip, his red headband might even make for a good marker of Face-violence awareness.
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A rather overly- enthusiastic way to commemorate the one year anniversary of the ‘birth’ of wriststrong…?
O-o
But really, he’s damn lucky he didn’t seriously hurt his eyes.
Be careful, sweetie.
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Poor Stephen, here’s to a speedy recovery.
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his bruises look exactly like the ones my mom had a few months ago.
she wears glasses too. she was reaching for something that was in a high cabinet and a few things of canned food fell on her forehead.
she was okay. just needed some stiches and ice.
hopefully stephen recovers quickly also!
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Reply to Truth, Annie and Auds —
Actually, I’d thought it might be a screen door too. That’s TOO embarrassing – even for him. On the other hand, he must know that, by bringing it up, the truth will emerge at some point, so maybe it’s NOT super embarrassing.
I’m sure his family is fine, otherwise he wouldn’t have brought it up at all. I mean, unlike with his wrist, if he hadn’t brought it up, no one may have ever known. So, by “exposing” it, he knows that people will think of his family too. Anyway, except for mentioning a ski trip vacation, or that he taught his kids’ Sunday School classes, he’s seemed to make a point of keeping his family’s life private. So, it probably wasn’t anything really bad like a car accident that involved his family.
I feel very confident that his family is fine – unless they had to be rushed to the ER from getting bad stitches in their sides from laughing after it happened! ;-)
Heal fast Stephen!
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A bear done it.
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Yikes. Did he mention it on air, or what?
(I don’t have access to the shows at the moment, unfortunately.)
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That looks like the sort of injury one receives when one is whacked in the face really hard. I’m guessing he either fell or got hit with something. Ouch! It makes my face hurt to look at it. And it just HAD to be the face! The beautiful face!
Ha ha! My reCaptcha is Ger workrooms. Other colboarders will find that as funny as I do, I’m sure.
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I just saw the show on rerun. Either it was, as he said, a stumble or a fall or a very simple accident that doesn’t offer any comic outle.
Or Laura Bush caught him in the elevator.
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noses are tender appendages! I hope he’s healed up and pain free pronto!
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I had bruises like that under both eyes when I broke my noise….by walking into a sliding glass window…while high on coke…sigh. That was a long time ago…really.
Hope you heal fast, Stephen! Happy Carolina Day!
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My first guess was he did it filming a movie and was told to keep it under wraps… So I imdb’d it and the only movie he has coming out us an animated movie… Still curious though… Get well!
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