Stephen Colbert reacts to Boston bombing

As if we needed another reason to love Stephen Colbert, his intro to Tuesday night’s edition of “The Colbert Report� was pitch perfect. (A heads up: The link contains profanity.) Interrupting his own bombastic set piece lead-in, he addressed the recent bombing of the Boston Marathon with humanity and humor, lauding the people of Boston as too tough to be shaken by terrorism. “This is a city founded by pilgirms,� he said as a rather grim-faced example of same flashed over his shoulder, “people so tough they buckled their hats to their head.�

PHOTOS: Explosions at the Boston Marathon

Laughter, so it goes, is the best medicine, and comedians, especially those with national platforms, are by necessity multi-taskers, able to provoke and comfort in equal measure. In the days following a tragedy especially, we look to television’s late-night icons to give us a voice and a context. How do we absorb the news without being paralyzed by it?

The trick, of course, is timing and tone -- how soon is too soon, and what can the jokes reside without increasing the pain. By reminding everyone that Boston is a city as scrappy as they come, a town long able to accept what it cannot change -- the Red Sox -- and change what it can -- being a British colony -- Colbert and his writers found a way to make us to control our shared anxiety and see ourselves as survivors rather than victims.

It was also pretty darn funny.

ALSO:

‘Fashion Police’ writers go on strike

Seth MacFarlane decries hoax ‘Family Guy’ clip

O’Brien, Ferguson and Kimmel discuss Boston bombing

PHOTOS, VIDEOS & MORE:

Real places, fake characters: TV’s bars and eateries

PHOTOS: ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ through the years

PHOTOS: Violence in TV shows