<P> As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors . </P> <P> While Colbert sometimes comedically claims his surname is French, he is of 15 / 16ths Irish ancestry (one of his paternal great - great - grandmothers was of German and English descent). Many of his ancestors emigrated from Ireland to North America in the 19th century before and during the Great Famine . </P> <P> Originally, his surname was pronounced / ˈkoʊlbərt / KOHL - bərt in English; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name / koʊlˈbɛər / kohl - BAIR, but maintained the / ˈkoʊlbərt / pronunciation out of respect for his own father . He offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred . Stephen started using / koʊlˈbɛər / later in life when he transferred to Northwestern University, taking advantage of the opportunity to reinvent himself in a new place where no one knew him . Stephen's elder brother, Edward, an intellectual property attorney, retained / ˈkoʊlbərt /; this was shown in a February 12, 2009, appearance on The Colbert Report, when his youngest brother asked him, "/ ˈkoʊlbərt / or / koʊlˈbɛər /?" Ed responded "/ ˈkoʊlbərt /", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell". </P> <P> On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two closest male siblings (by age), Peter and Paul, died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while it was attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina . They were en route to enroll the two boys at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut . Lorna Colbert relocated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street in Charleston . Colbert found the transition difficult and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood . Colbert later described himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of importance regarding the things with which other children concerned themselves . </P>

Bob and steve are brothers who have different friends