"We cannot elect men to office," said Jane Fonda, cozily ensconced on the lap of a disconcerted Stephen Colbert, "that are afraid of premature evacuation."

On May 10, Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, got an early birthday present when the object of his fantasy, Fonda, decided to turn her interview with him into a make-out session.

"You are so cute, man!" she said to him, her face bare centimeters away from his pink one. "And I'm not kidding - you have the best lips. Why do you think I didn't just kiss you just once the first time I came to your show? I came back for more."

"Yes, we had a bit of a freaky three-way with Gloria Steinem, which is something, I think, very few people have been able to say," he responded to shouts of laughter from the constantly giggling audience (if you're like me and can't stand the Comedy Central video player, The Raw Story has full video).

Who knew Fonda was a member of the so-called Colbert Nation? But it was only to be expected, I suppose. Colbert's come a long way from October, 2005, when plenty of people, me included, wondered how far The Colbert Report, the new show from The Daily Show stable would go.

Colbert was leaving behind the hottest thing in fake news and the idea of a half-hour caricature show didn't seem all that thrilling, even if it was our favorite correspondent who was about to do it. It was one thing to watch Colbert needle self-important pundits like Bill O'Reilly in short segments on TDS, it was quite another to hand over an entire half-hour to a pompous megalomaniac (the character, not the real Colbert).

That stuff gets old pretty fast even when it's for real - how much comedy could Colbert wring from it? Well, let's see: after one year and seven months on air, The Report and its bespectacled anchor has attracted attention on a scale guaranteed to make more "legitimate" news shows gnash their teeth in envy.

His guests include politicians and pundits from opposite sides of the liberal/conservative divide, movie stars, diplomats, artists and writers, academicians, musicians - it's an eclectic mix. He's also the only TV host I ever saw who actively uses the Internet, especially Youtube, to connect with his fans. Craig Ferguson on CBS may have his emails and "The Google" at his fingertips, but Colbert has his green screen challenges: even George Lucas couldn't resist the pull of the Star Trek challenge.

He also contributed the words "truthiness" and "wikiality" to the modern lexicon; inspired a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor called Stephen Colbert's Americone Dreams; has two namesakes in separate protected species - a baby bald eagle named Stephen Jr. and a leatherback turtle called Stephanie Colburtle.

Even alternate reality and other countries aren't proof against him - Captain America bequeathed his shield to Colbert upon his death as the only worthy successor to his mantle and the city of Oshawa, Ontario, now celebrates Stephen Colbert Day. He nearly added a bridge in Hungary to his achievements but gave it up after the Hungarian Ambassador told him he'd have to die first. It's an astonishing list of achievements for a fictional character.