On Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, Comedy Central broadcast the last show of Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report.”
Good, solid show, but the ending was the over-the-top, OMG/WTF ending that was just perfect for this nine-year-old show. (NOTE: There was a brief, prerecorded segment after the musical number to close out the show, but the musical number was the highlight.)
Hard to fully detail, but the ending was Colbert, joined by Jon Stewart and Randy Newman, singing “We’ll Meet Again.” Fitting.
But slowly, the stage was filled with, well, everyone:
- Singers – Country, rock & roll, classical (Yo Yo Ma)
- Academics – Historians, economists, scientists
- Politicians – Right wing (Mike Huckabee, Henry Kissinger [honest!]); left wing (NYC mayor Bill de Blasio, Andrew Young, Cory Booker)
- News anchors, news and sports (Tom Brokow, Bob Costas, Katie Couric…)
- Journalists of all stripes – newspaper/magazine/blog … and both left and right
- Intellectuals/trend setters: Gloria Steinem, Robert Pinsky, Dean Kamen
- Athletes/celebrities: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Franco, George Lucas, Sir Patrick Stewart, Alan Alda
- Big Bird, Cookie Monster…
I could – and should – go on about the ending, but watch it yourself. Joyous.
Probably the best end to a show I’ve ever seen. It was like the end of a Saturday Night Live (SNL) show, but to the max.