Greg Gutfeld delivers delicious Twitter dunk on leftist late-night TV also-ran Stephen Colbert, who mocked Fox News' Christmas tree set on fire

Left-wingers far and wide depend on the likes of Stephen Colbert to pepper their sad social media feeds with witticisms that attempt to take down anything that smells conservative.

Colbert — a late-night TV host who's known for his humor and intellect — tried his best to mock Fox News in regard to the not-exactly-funny moment when a large Christmas tree in front the News Corp. building in midtown Manhattan was set on fire after midnight Wednesday:

“Flaming Christmas Tree just got its own show on FoxNews!” Colbert quipped.

So stunning. So brave.

What happened next?

If you can imagine Colbert basking in the glow of digital high fives from his devoted Twitter followers after posting his one-liner — snapping his suspenders and managing a satisfied grin — then also picture someone else coming along to take the wind out Colbert's sails.

And it happened.

None other than Greg Gutfeld — Fox News' own late-night TV host — noticed Colbert's jab at Fox News and couldn't help offering Colbert a great, big cold-water splash of truth:

"And it's already beating you in the ratings," Gutfeld replied.

Boom.

Gutfeld's clever pushback that even video of a Christmas tree turning into ashes quickly was outpacing Colbert's own show in the ratings definitely won the day, particularly when measured by Twitter users' reactions.

As of Thursday afternoon, Gutfeld's gut-buster has received over 56,000 likes, while Colbert's far weaker attempt at mockery was lagging way behind at just over 16,000 likes.

The rest of the story

Gutfeld's tweet back at Colbert also is hard to dismiss in terms of accuracy using other metrics.

"Gutfeld!" — a newcomer on the late-night TV scene — made its presence felt immediately. In fact, it got bigger ratings that the late-night shows from Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Colbert. for the first time over a whole week way back in August.

And it will come as no surprise that Fox News as a whole is still bludgeoning the competition in the ratings department.

In November, Fox News crushed CNN and MSNBC with an average prime-time audience of 2.578 million viewers; MSNBC netted just over a million total viewers; while CNN lagged far behind at 654,000 viewers, Forbes noted.

The outlet added that Fox News also won in the the key demo of adults 25-54 — which advertisers covet the most — attracting an average audience of 420,000 viewers, while CNN and MSNBC were running on fumes with 148,000 and 140,000 viewers, respectively.

Oh, and about that torched tree

Politico reported that police arrested 49-year-old Craig Tamanaha, who is homeless, for allegedly setting the Christmas tree on fire. Tamanaha was charged with arson, criminal mischief, criminal nuisance, criminal tampering, criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct, and reckless endangerment, the outlet said.

Tamanaha was freed after his arraignment Wednesday night because his charges were not eligible for bail, the New York Post reported. The paper added that he also allegedly exposed himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial last week.

(H/T: The Daily Wire)