Call us pessimists or call us people who watch a lot of comedy television, but it seemed like last night’s live Comedy Central event featuring Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert covering the election was just mildly sub par.

The above video has been circulating via e-mail suggesting that Steven Colbert actually breaks character and tears up when Obama wins the election. Gossip blog Jossip says: Maybe? It’s sort of up in the air, he could just be really tired, or trying to kill time until all the immense shrieking from the audience dies down.

Whatever. Who was watching Comedy Central at 11PM EST when polls closed on the west coast? We certainly weren’t after the opening half-hour of the special was full of slight technical glitches, guests who didn’t matter and uncharacteristically stiff inprov banter from Stewart and Colbert.

During a segment when Steve Forbes (of all people) joined the co-hosts as a guest, he was placed in-between them and forced to be interviewed by Jon Stewart (who either gives the greatest or the most boring interviews depending on the night) and Steven Colbert (who stays in satiric character throughout his interviews) at the same time. We would not want to be him, even if he did get to host a really unfunny SNL once.

Though The Daily Show frequently ends with Stewart chatting with Colbert for a brief one-minute comedy routine turned plug, something about the chemistry of Comedy Central’s two great political humorists was off. What little spark they were able to muster wasn’t able to jump-start the writing.

Maybe The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are best when their award-winning writers get all day to hammer out the material.