colbertesquiremagpic.jpgEsquire Magazine’s August 2008 cover is of none other than the king of comedy (at least according to me), Stephen Colbert, posing as a jolly St. Sebastian! St. Sebastian is the Patron Saint of, among many other things, athletes, and he is always portrayed with a number of arrows stuck painfully into his body (complete with drops of blood oozing down).
It’s Esquire’s 75th anniversary, and to celebrate they are re-doing some of their most famous covers. This Colbert-as-St. Sebastian cover is a more lighthearted update of the very famous cover they did of a true athlete, Muhammad Ali, in April 1968, posed as the same saint (Ali is in his boxing shorts). This cover was inspired by the fact that Ali was, as a Muslim, a conscientious objector to Vietnam.
Anyway, back to Colbert: the magazine features more hilarious religious spoof photos of Colbert as Martyr (and a headline that appropriately says: I am a Martyr, and so can you! LOL), as well as Colbert about to be burned at the stake. Check it out. Why wouldn’t you anyway? Who can resist Stephen Colbert?

More from Beliefnet and our partners