Stephen Colbert is all buildup, no punchline imitating Rachel Maddow on 'The Late Show'

Democrats weren't the only ones left unimpressed with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who took a frustratingly long time to reveal two pages of President Donald Trump's 2005 tax returns on Tuesday. Late night has since pounced on Maddow's stall tactics, with none better than The Late Show's Stephen Colbert.

Colbert devoted his cold open Wednesday night to poking fun at Maddow with a special report of his own. Impersonating the MSNBC anchor, Colbert revealed he had in his hand the first joke that Trump had connected with. Naturally, it was of the chicken crossing the road variety. You see where this is going. 

"Why did the chicken?" Colbert said. "But first, a word on chickens." 

Colbert flawlessly segued toward a rant on chickens and their potential ties to Russia, at one point bringing out a live chicken in a tie from somewhere underneath his desk. This exasperating strategy continued when Colbert took some time to talk about — you guessed it — roads. 

"But whether or not you're a Trump supporter, whether or not you've heard this joke before, it ought to give you pause that after all of this buildup, I still haven't gotten to the punchline," he added. 

By the time Colbert finally got to the joke's punchline, they ran out of time in the segment — though he does eventually reveal the punchline at the end of his show. So, if you really want to know why the chicken crossed the road, it was "to get to the other fried," as Colbert chomped down on a bucket of fried chicken. 

It was some great trolling on Colbert's end, and Maddow, to her credit, responded to his video with a cheeky tweet of her own. 

Watch the video below: 

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