I just think Rosa Parks was overrated. Last time I checked, she got famous for breaking the law.

On its face, the line disparages Rosa Parks by framing her civil-disobedience arrest as mere “lawbreaking.” In Colbert’s typical satirical mode, however, the statement is best read as an imitation of a reactionary or overly legalistic viewpoint—one that treats legality as the sole measure of morality and ignores the injustice of segregation laws. The joke depends on the audience recognizing the absurdity of calling Parks “overrated” and of reducing her historical significance to a technical violation, thereby exposing how appeals to “law and order” can be used to delegitimize principled protest and social change.