Ben Carson, soft-spoken, anticlimactic bringer of dreams, officially dropped out of the presidential race on March 4. “You know, there’s a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” Carson told the crowd at CPAC [the Conservative Political Action Conference], treating them to one of the saddest combinations of words said during a presidential race.
Watch: Stephen Colbert gives sleepy doctor Ben Carson a bizarre Hunger Games goodbye
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
Carson’s sleepy concession speech did not go unnoticed by Stephen Colbert, who decided to bid Carson farewell while once again reprising his impersonation of The Hunger Games’ Caesar Flickerman (the character was played by Stanley Tucci in the film franchise). Colbert enjoys using The Hunger Games to explain the presidential race.
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry you’re voting for Ben Carson,” Colbert said. “He failed to win a single state on Super Tuesday, or on average Wednesday.”
The sketch got stranger (and perhaps better, if you’re into that sort of thing) as Colbert brought out his “eunuch” manservant named Andro to fill his champagne flute with more bubbly. It was one of those moments where Colbert, who’s normally so good at staying in character, almost cracks. And perhaps unintentionally, Colbert laughing at himself shows that even Colbert’s weird Hunger Games skit is more dynamic than Carson.
Before bidding a final goodbye to Carson, Colbert reminded us of the bizarre knife fight story Carson has talked about during his campaign. Somehow Carson even made attempted murder seem kinda boring.
“Good night sweet prince. Good night — that is assuming you were ever awake in the first place,” Colbert said.
