A Shakespearean smackdown on ‘The Colbert Report’

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When you enter the Stephen Colbert arena, beware. You never know what he’s going to throw at you. In the hours after the veep debate Thursday night, an appearance by Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt on ‘The Colbert Report’ led to some Elizabethan analogies (McCain as Macbeth, a military hero who was the first ‘macmaverick,’ and Obama as Hamlet, who shares the candidate’s professor-like indecision).

And when Greenblatt tried to close the segment with a few lines from the bard, Colbert would not be upstaged. It was a Shakespearean smackdown! (Plus, fyi, a few salty -- and beeped -- words from Colbert that demonstrate no one, not even Greenblatt, can get away with throwing down some verse.)

Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.

-- Nick Owchar