Stephen Colbert brutally roasts Rachel Maddow's 'revelation' about Donald Trump tax form

Maddow delayed telling viewers about details of the President's tax form for up to half an hour

US late night host Stephen Colbert has poked fun at the MSNBC broadcast which saw Rachel Maddow delay telling viewers about Donald Trump's tax returns having announced it to over six million Twitter followers moments before.

Viewers grew infuriated as they watched the journalist eke out the announcement for up to half an hour opting instead to use the spotlight to discuss the US President's links to Russia.

Colbert performed a sketch on The Late Show which saw him reveal he had made a game-changing discovery: a joke.

“I hold in my hand something very significant,” he began. “It is a joke. A joke we can be confirmed has been heard by Donald Trump. We believe this is the first time any joke connected with Donald Trump has been released. This is an old joke from before he was President.”

The joke was: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

He continued, waving the unseen documents about: “This, this piece of paper, the part facing me wth the words you can't see, this is the document with the joke.”

In recent months, Maddow's has become the most-watched cable news show among anti-Trump viewers.

It was only after criticising the Russian links to the new administration that Maddow eventually revealed the two-page document from 2005; it showed that the business tycoon had paid millions towards the Alternative Minimum Tax - a special rate applied for high earners who routinely take advantage of tax deductions.

In case you're wondering, Colbert eventually revealed the joke's answer towards the end of the show. What was it? Check back later to find out.