There was a time around 2010 when I genuinely felt that Stephen Colbert was the best comedian on the planet. The Colbert Report — his Comedy Central show that spoofed arch-conservative pundit commentary shows like Hannity and The O’Reilly Factor — felt like the sharpest political satire outside of the internet. It quickly became a better court jester than The Daily Show because he could embody the worst parts of our political landscape and then self-flagellate in new and inventive ways.

At the time, The Daily Show was reduced to the following predictable format: An absurd clip from Fox News, then Jon Stewart would do a voice to mock it, then an absurd clip from CNN, then Jon Stewart would react with a perplexed face. He seemed clearly bored of the program and the role his show was expected to perform in the political landscape. Colbert, meanwhile, treated the Report like a comedic playground, and he’d constantly find new cable news host idiosyncrasies to parody. Other times, he’d wrestle a minotaur for five minutes, just to let his anarchic sense of humor get some reps in. Even the set design was packed full of jokes. The desire to stretch every possible comedic muscle made it more endearing.

It also felt different because like they were not content to just mock the world from afar, but to directly poke it in the eye when they could. Sometimes just to indulge in the character’s megalomania (getting various bridges and space stations named after himself), sometimes creating his own Super PAC to run ads during the Republican primary and, once, paying off the DonorsChoose.org school funding projects for the state of South Carolina. Whether they were virtuous or trolling, the moments when the character would interact with the real world produced a feeling of exciting chaos. Nothing embodied this more than his infamous White House Correspondent’s Dinner keynote before George W. Bush, which altered the nature of that spot forever. We want to hold our politicians to account, but we so often could not. The Colbert character at least made sure they could hear us jeer.

When I heard he was taking over Letterman’s chair and starting up The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , I was cautiously optimistic. He was clearly a top tier comedic talent that deserved to have a big stage, bigger than bringing up the rear after The Daily Show. But I wasn’t sure how his comedy would translate to, for the first time, just really being himself.

For the last five years, what I’ve seen is a disappointment — maybe logically and inevitably, given that the 11:30 slot on CBS is a different animal than the 11:30 slot on Comedy Central. Where there used to be wit with a bite, there’s now just the robotic functions of late night monologues: doing voices, perplexed reactions and playing to the crowd. While still political, instead of aiming for college students it seems to be aiming for their liberal parents. This ain’t your kid’s Stephen Colbert.

This is perhaps more of an indictment of the late night talk show format than Colbert’s comedic talents. Even Conan O’Brien, the format’s most transgressive voice last century, bristled under the constraints in his brief reign as The Tonight Show host. Colbert’s job was to inherit Letterman’s older audience and win just enough new viewers to win the ratings war with NBC and he did just that. But what those people want isn’t a prolonged physical comedy skit about unclenching your sphincter — they want someone to scold Donald Trump with a dignified posture in the style of Keith Olbermann.

I miss the flexibility of The Colbert Report. In recurring segments, the show would take aim at snake oil health supplements, audacious ultra-rich luxuries and the indulgences of amateur narcissistic sci-fi writers. It did not feel constrained by the expectation to comfort the audience, but empowered by the writing staff’s desire to explore the society that would shape such a character.

Of course, it is hard to look at the normie turn of Stephen Colbert without looking at the Trump landscape. Everyone is having a hard time doing political satire in a time so full of real life silliness that frequently crosses over into abject evil. Saturday Night Live has turned into an unwatchable masturbatory ritual for the liberal set, somehow finding new unfunny depths. Perhaps it is remarkable that Colbert has merely become “not for me” instead of actively bad.