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That Time Biden Played A Hot Dog Vendor

by Cathaleen Chen

Are you pumped for Joe Biden on Late Night with Stephen Colbert Thursday? Yeah, me too. Hopefully, he'll put an end to the 2016 election rumors and settle it once and for all: Will our favorite surrogate-uncle-slash-vice-president run for Oval Office next year? In the past month, he has teased us again and again with the possibility of a third bid (first in 1987, then in 2008) for the presidency. As part of a Pittsburgh Labor Day parade Monday, he even amused the possibility with an on-brand pun — he "ran" back and forth on the parade route to greet fans along the barricades while labor union members cheered him on with enabling chants of "Run, Joe, Run!"

Run, indeed. Or, at least, make up your mind. According to policy experts at the Brookings Institute, Biden and other prospective candidates are hurting their chances as they run out of time to meet filing deadlines for state primaries. Missed deadlines means missed votes from delegates, fewer votes in the primaries means an unlikely chance of winning the nomination... You get it. But whispers of candidacy aside, Biden will be a riot on the show regardless.

This won't be the first time the former Delaware Senator interacts with Stephen Colbert on live TV. In 2010, he made a brief but impressionable cameo on The Colbert Report. Watch below:

What's more American than Biden as VP? Biden as a hot dog vendor at a baseball game... handing out hot dogs to troops. "Hey, hot dog guy," Colbert calls out. "To you, that's Mr. Vice President," Mr. Vice President retorts.

Scripted, yes, but amusing all the same. One Constitution joke later, Colbert asks Biden to address the criticism (from himself and his "conservative" fans nonetheless) that he hasn't given George W. Bush enough credit. So like his charismatic self, Biden looks straight at the camera and says:

Mr. President, thank you. You've honored these guys, you've honored these women, you've honored these troops. I've known you your entire eight years as president and I've never known a time when you didn't care about what happened. We disagreed on policy, but you deserve a lot of credit.

The funny thing is that Bush's 'lil brother Jeb was just on the show Tuesday night. If anything though, I'll bet Biden will have more chemistry with the new Late Night host (and alumnus of my alma mater!). Biden can have chemistry with a can of beans if he wanted to. Remember that time when he successfully flirted with a tough 108-year-old veteran? Or when he whispered sweet nothings into the ears of every other woman on Capitol Hill? Or that time a biker sat in his lap so he gave her a massage? Oh man, I'm spiraling into a Biden charm abyss now.