I still remember the shiver of delight I felt watching the very first episode of The Colbert Report in the fall of 2005. I was the prototypical millennial high school student who got all her news from The Daily Show—but I got even more joy out of Stephen Colbert’s spikier, more experimental spin-off, starring the comedian as a conservative blowhard named “Stephen Colbert.” I had mixed emotions a decade later, when Colbert (the real one) was chosen to succeed David Letterman on CBS: I was thrilled for the man I’d formed a long parasocial relationship with, of course, but also bereft, since moving to this new mainstream platform would mean Colbert had to retire his fictional alter ego. I never thought I’d live to see a day when there was no Colbert on TV at all.
Yet that’s exactly where we’re headed. Tonight, Colbert will hang up his proverbial spurs, wrapping up his very last episode of The Late Show—the very last episode of The Late Show, period. His exit comes amid a cloud of controversy and a Trumpian crackdown on liberal voices. Even so, Colbert has been facing the axe with admirable grace, using the long runway of his show’s cancellation to plan an ending worthy of the 20-plus years he’s produced nightly entertainment. Before watching his big finale (or, let’s be real, catching up with clips from it tomorrow morning—the behavior which, to be clear, is what got us into this mess in the first place!), please peruse this very entertaining list lovingly compiled by Laura Bradley, who asked 18 of Colbert’s most frequent collaborators and guests to remember their favorite stories about him. Or to put it in words my 17-year-old self would understand: Ste-phen! Ste-phen! Ste-phen! |
HILLARY BUSIS,
SENIOR EDITOR |
Robert De Niro, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jimmy Fallon, and 15 more celebrities and colleagues share their funniest, most outrageous memories from Stephen Colbert’s decade on CBS. |
|
|
The biggest names in the film industry are all probably staying in one place. |
BY MAGGIE COUGHLAN, KIA D. GOOSBY, AND MILES POPE |
Eva Longoria, Geena Davis, Maura Higgins, and more step out in style for the annual HIV/AIDS research fundraiser. |
|
|
When the White House gave up even the pretense of truthiness, and the pandemic drove us inside and inward, Stephen Colbert made our late nights a lot less dark by becoming the rarest of things: himself. |
|
|
|
