Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert dedicated a segment of his “Colbert Report” Wednesday night to give Amazon founder Jeff Bezos some gesticular criticism over the website’s increased price and purposeful delay of book sales.
Colbert said he was “mad prime” at Amazon for its dispute with publisher Hachette, which has prompted the online retailer to slow shipment of Hachette books by weeks, raise prices, and cancel sales and pre-sales. Hachette publishes noted authors including Malcolm Gladwell, J.K. Rowling, and Colbert himself.
Amazon, which is now responsible for about 50 percent of all book sales, released a statement amidst the controversy instructing customers to buy used Hachette books from other sellers.
“Folks, publishers and authors get no cash from used book sales,” Colbert said. “Plus, you don’t want them. Used books are the sluts of the literary world, passed around from person to person, spreading their pages for anyone, getting cheaper and cheaper until eventually they end up in prison.”
The segment ended with a colorful package from Colbert to Amazon and “Lord Bezo-Mort.”
“Customers who enjoyed this, also bought this,” Colbert said.
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