By Ian Casselberry on

Imitation, as the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery.

On Monday night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic was invited to the Ed Sullivan Theater to serve a tennis ball at the host. Adding to the cool factor was that Colbert was protecting himself with Captain America’s shield, which Marvel gave to him back in 2007.

FS1’s Jay Onrait was extremely flattered by Colbert’s bit. That’s probably because it bore quite a resemblance to something he and Dan O’Toole did on Fox Sports Live last year, letting Andy Roddick fire serves at them. Inspired by Colbert’s swipe, Onrait took the opportunity to use one of the comedian’s bits from his old Comedy Central show to fulfill the new network initiative to “embrace debate.” Here is Onrait doing his version of “Formidable Opponent” from The Colbert Report:

Excellent work, as Onrait did indeed present a formidable opponent for Onrait in their debate over the San Francisco 49ers and new head coach Jim Tomsula. (There may have been a bit too much mutual admiration, but that’s perfectly understandable, given the circumstances.) Hopefully, this becomes a regular feature on the show, even if it did originate elsewhere. (Hey, that probably isn’t the last time Colbert lets a sports star fire a ball at Captain America’s shield.) If FS1 has to embrace debate, at least make it fun (and funny).

Just in case you weren’t sure just how well Onrait and the Fox Sports Live team performed the “Formidable Opponent” bit, here’s a clip of Colbert doing it on one of his final episodes of The Colbert Report:

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About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.

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