When life gives Stephen Colbert lemons, he makes lemonade. Or rather, when Daft Punk pulls out of performing on his show so they can make a no-longer-a-surprise appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 25, Colbert punks right back — with a star-studded music video.
Tuesday night Colbert led his show off by announcing "Stephen Colbchella," his annual summer music fest. The reclusive Daft Punk (whose song "Get Lucky" is one of summer's biggest hits) had been expected to appear. But when that suddenly wasn't happening, Colbert took aim and fired.
"They're not here tonight and I have accepted a lot of money from our Colbchella sponsor Hyundai, so not delivering the song of the summer is a real kick," he told viewers, noting he'd been "daft punk'd."
After a quick visit from "Punk'd" creator Ashton Kutcher, Colbert continued: "I don't care what MTV allows," he said. "My audience gets the song of the summer if they want it, and I don't even need Daft Punk to choose my show over the VMAs to get it," he said. "This is Colbchella ... and it is time to dance!"
He danced into the studio audience and into what was probably even better than having the band on: A star-studded music video with intentionally lousy special effects and a whole host of hilarious names: Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges, Jimmy Fallon, Bryan Cranston, Henry Kissinger, Jon Stewart and Matt Damon. He even danced onto the Radio City Music Hall stage on "America's Got Talent."
Check out the video and start dancing!