This is too damn good so I’ll be brief. Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report had been hyping Daft Punk’s first live performance since their latest album Random Access Memories on his show. But then the French electronic duo cancelled their visit to the Report at the last minute due to contractual obligations with CC’s sister network MTV (they are both owned by media conglomerate Viacom). In a fit of anger and some booze, Colbert spilled to his audience what has supposed to be a surprise for VMA viewers: Daft Punk is scheduled to perform live at the MTV Video Music Awards later this month. It was the Report or the VMAs and Daft Punk chose the latter and legalese with MTV made it impossible for the artists to perform on Colbert’s stage, too.

Now that you have the story down pat, watch Colbert tell his side of the story in his entertaining way in the clip embedded above. And then, after the break, watch the host perform his very own rendition of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” with many, many surprise guests. It truly is a riot. Perhaps Daft Punk’s absence was a godsend because I doubt their live version of “Get Lucky” could ever best what Colbert put together here.