Nothing reveals the gap between Hollywood and everyday America quite like a celebrity joking about $15 gasoline while driving a car that does not even use gasoline.
As gas prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’ “The Late Show,“ tried to turn pain at the pump into a punchline in 2022.
“Today, the average gas price in America hit an all-time record high of over $4 per gallon,” he said on the show. “OK, that stings, but a clean conscience is worth a buck or two. It’s important. I’m willing to pay $4 a gallon. Hell, I’ll pay $15 a gallon, because I drive a Tesla.”
The joke itself was obvious. Colbert was sarcastically framing higher gas prices as the moral cost of supporting sanctions against Russia. The humor was that he personally did not care how high prices climbed because he drove a Tesla, a fully electric vehicle that does not use gasoline at all.
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That was also the part that seemed to rub many viewers the wrong way.
It was not outrage over a comedian making a joke. It was the feeling that the joke came from somebody completely insulated from the financial pressure most Americans were experiencing at the time. Colbert is a wealthy television host reportedly earning millions of dollars a year. Most viewers were not driving luxury EVs. They were driving gas-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs while watching fuel costs hammer already strained household budgets.
The Tesla Line Hit Differently Outside Hollywood
Part of what made the moment linger was how small the EV market still was when Colbert made the comment.
In 2022, plug-in electric vehicles accounted for roughly 5.8% of new U.S. light-duty vehicle sales according to Cox Automotive data. That means more than 94% of new vehicles sold still depended on gasoline.
The numbers become even more striking when looking at the entire vehicle fleet rather than just new sales. Only about 1% of registered light-duty vehicles on American roads were EVs in 2022.
In other words, the overwhelming majority of Americans could not simply opt out of high gas prices by plugging in a Tesla at home.
That reality made Colbert’s joke feel less like a universal observation and more like a celebrity flex delivered from inside a financial bubble. To many viewers, it sounded like somebody saying gas prices were manageable while bypassing the problem entirely.
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Tesla ownership itself also carried a very different image at the time. Even the company’s lower-priced models remained out of reach for many middle-class households already struggling with inflation, rising rents, and higher grocery bills. The average driver filling up a used SUV or pickup truck was not comparing EV charging networks. They were trying to avoid spending another $90 at the pump.
Gas Prices Are Rising Again And The Clip Still Resonates
The reason the quote keeps resurfacing is simple: the underlying frustration never really disappeared.
Gasoline prices have climbed again this year amid geopolitical instability and concerns surrounding global oil supply routes near the Strait of Hormuz. For many Americans, fuel costs once again feel like an unavoidable tax on daily life.
Meanwhile, EV adoption has grown slower than some analysts predicted. This year’s estimates place EVs at roughly 2.4% of all vehicles operating on U.S. roads, or about 5.8 million to 7 million EVs among nearly 290 million total vehicles nationwide.
Tesla still dominates the U.S. EV market, accounting for roughly 54% of EV sales during the first quarter of this year according to
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