Stephen Colbert Out-Of-Character: 'I Don't Want To Be In Politics, I Want To Talk About Politics'

Back in October, Stephen Colbert did a talk at Yale Law School about his exciting foray into the world of Super PACs, and while there, he sat down for a brief chat with YTV, the Yale Daily News' television station.

In the interview, Colbert explains that he never knows whether he's invited to speak as Stephen Colbert "the person" or Stephen Colbert "the character," and goes into the process of deconstructing and reconstructing the news on his show: "You have to know what shape you want your monster to be in when you're done."

Colbert also puts a fine point on his role as satirist: "I don't want to be in politics, I want to talk about politics. I want to make jokes about politics."

Finally, in a shocking twist, Colbert's interviewer (Yale-student Cody Pomeranz) stumps the Tolkien-expert on a "Lord Of The Rings" question. We didn't see that coming at all.