Stephen Colbert races to eat a Hot Pocket against a Mario 3 speedrunner

Also a bonus relay

As a promotion for Summer Games Done Quick (and its subsequent charity push), the speedrunning record holder for Super Mario Bros. 3 Mitch Fowler appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to demonstrate one of his runs. Colbert races him by eating a Hot Pocket, and an actual relay footrace is being held in tandem.

It’s a cute bit. I especially like how Colbert has to open the box and the packet, cook it, wait for it to cool down, then eat it — I had to re-watch the video several times because each part is fun enough to watch on its own.

As a rule I don’t think Colbert and his comedic style particularly suit the late night CBS audience (his “Colbert” character and cable TV were the perfect storm for him), but occasionally his team will come up with something like this worth checking out. He also beats out Jimmy Fallon’s faux enthusiasm for gaming (faux enthusiasm for anything and everything, really), though Conan’s honest “I’m bad at games” shtick is still the tops for me.