It’s a day for lasts. The last Serial, and tonight, the last episode of The Colbert Report. Tonight Stephen Colbert signs off as his fake-conservative persona and next year, he’ll re-emerge as simply himself, taking over David Letterman’s Late Show. For nine years The Colbert Report has been a late-night comedy staple, but I’m excited to see what Colbert does next. There are times on his show when you can feel the constraint of the character on Colbert, and it will be interesting to see what he does once he’s freed from that role.
On last night’s penultimate episode, Colbert held a yard sale, practically giving away items from his studio, including Michael Stipe. Colbert’s ability to get major celebrities and artists to do stuff like this is one of the most exciting aspects of his upcoming tenure as a talk show host. People REALLY like Stephen Colbert, and he has a talent for making other people look good. Jimmy Fallon has that, but he’s terrible at the interviewing part of his job. I’m hoping Colbert’s Late Show stint will be defined by not only great comedy bits, but also great interviews, like the one he recently did with Smaug. For now, though, we have one more night with The Colbert Report.
Yard sale video:
In Canada, you can watch the clip here https://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheColbertReport.
(Lainey – attaching what’s known as Colbert’s greatest moment of “truthiness”. It never, ever gets old.)
