11 Things You Didn't Know About Stephen Colbert

11. He Lost His Father And Two Brothers In A Plane Crash

Comedy often comes out of tragedy, and Colbert is no stranger to tragedy: When he was 10 years old, Stephen's father and two of his brothers were killed in a plane crash. He told Oprah that at such a young age, he didn't fully process the loss, but he began to feel it deeply when he went off to college.

Yet in the face of such profound sadness, Colbert found something magical: comedy. As he once said, you can't laugh and be afraid at the same time, and so he found solace in making jokes to alleviate the suffering. He would tell jokes to his mother to try to cheer her up, one of his first experiences with performing as a comedian.

"I think there's no doubt that I do what I do because I wanted to make her happy," he said. "No doubt." 

He points to one of his favorite J.R.R Tolkien quotes to summarize his attitude: What punishments of God are not gifts? "So it would be ungrateful not to take everything with gratitude," he told GQ. "It doesn't mean you want it. [...] But you can't change everything about the world. You certainly can't change things that have already happened.”

His mother also helped him to work through the tragedy. "Everybody suffers," he said, "and if you can accept your suffering, then you'll just understand people better."