Enter a new referee in the Copygate dispute between Google and Bing: comedian Stephen Colbert. Despite being sponsored by Bing, Colbert came down in Google’s favor last night on the Colbert Report — at least jokingly.

Colbert comes into the story with a Bing spokesperson’s denial that it is copying Google’s results.

Well, make that a spokespaperclip. Clippy from Microsoft Office is shown pictured next to the denial.

Colbert then explains how Google’s sting operation used fake words like “hiybbprqag” to generate results that in turn appeared at Bing.

OK, he doesn’t explain it correctly, but come on, this is comedy.That leads into his defense of Google, and the best part of the segment:

“Evidently, ‘hiybbprqag’ is a word meaning, you got served,” he jokes.

I won’t give the last part away. Let’s just say when he thanks his sponsor Bing, it’s pretty funny. Definitely watch the full video below, where the fun begins about 50 seconds after the start. The segment’s only about two minutes long and includes Colbert actually pronouncing “hiybbprqag” in hilarious fashion.

On a personal note, I was thrilled to discover I had a cameo:

In seriousness, for more about the copygate dispute, see our article and follow-up posts below:

• Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
• Bing Admits Using Customer Search Data, Says Google Pulled ‘Spy-Novelesque Stunt’
• Bing’s Search Results Are A ‘Cheap Imitation’, Google Says
• Bing: ‘We Do Not Copy Results. Period.’

For more about Colbert’s connection to Bing, his still fairly recent interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Colbert’s own brief rise-and-fall in Google’s search results, see the stories below:

• Colbert Goes From 0-To-40 “Bing” Mentions In 2 Minutes, For Charity
• Transcript: Stephen Colbert Interviews Google’s Eric Schmidt On The Colbert Report
• Google Declares Stephen Colbert As Greatest Living American
• Google Says Stephen Colbert Is No Longer The Greatest Living American

Postscript: Gary Price tipped us to Jimmy Fallon getting in on the action, too, joking “That’s when you know Bing is in trouble. When even Bing isn’t using Bing.” You can watch his joke below. It comes at 2:11 into the monologue.

Related Topics: Copygate | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Search & Society: General | Top News

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle (and maintains his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn