I thought this deserved a mention on here.
I didn’t watch it but what I do know from scrolling is that Colbert made no comments about Trump – but Springsteen and Letterman certainly did! Elvis Costello came on and the show ended with Colbert singing a spirited rendition of Hello Goodbye with Sir Macca.
In the final few seconds, we see the main power switch of the Ed Sullivan Theatre being turned off by McCartney.
This may signal the end of the late night TV chat show
as a format, overall. This kind of show isn’t as embedded in British culture as it is in the States, so I’m not sure the significance will be felt outside of the USA.
I remember several attempts to emulate this format in the UK – Danny Baker, Joan Rivers, Clive James
, Jonathan Ross – and I even recall one presented by Janet Street-Porter in the 70s. Didn’t quite catch on.
However, worth noting I think.
I’ve only seen the highlights on YouTube, but I thought the final episode was very well done and Macca was on good form.
I for one will miss the show. Watching from across the pond, I saw Colbert as a guide to what’s been going on in the US. I liked the insightful-yet-funny way his opening monologue often cast an eye over the orange hobgoblin in the White House, and his fawning cabal, and pointed out just how crazy things have become. Before that, his impression of Joe Biden as a folksy, out-of-touch, Rayban-wearing leader was great.
In the weeks leading up to the final episode, I’m sure he mentioned that around 200 staff were involved in making the show. I wonder if that is one reason why a late-night show like his has never really lasted in the UK. That’s a big wage bill to fund night after night, along with having the difficulty of finding two or three big-name guests for every episode.
Trump has posted an AI interpretation of him picking up Colbert and throwing him in a dumpster – and then doing his highly camp fists in the air dance.
That tells you all you need to know about Stephen Colbert. Great man.
And all you need to know about Trump. Small man.
Imagine – just for a second – having the mentality where you think that posting that video is a good idea. What an awful, awful man he is.
It’s not a scientific study by any means, but I do notice that on the hellsite that is X/Twitter, there appear to be an increasing number of expert voices saying that Trump is on his way out, and fewer rushing immediately to his defence no matter what.
trump unfortunately has to miss his son’s wedding as he has important government business to deal with.
I think we can guess what that is.
While doing his “questionert” with (IIRC) Robert Plant, Colbert spontaneously quoted Tolkien. Another time he spontaneously quoted E.E. Cummings. Apparently he’s a big fan of both. A classy chap, and it was classy of him not to mention Trump at all in his goodbye show.
I’ll miss the show – I’ve been making a point of watching the opening monologue and the “Meanwhile” segment on YT most nights.
Indeed. A lesser man might well have spent the episode bitterly railing against the excrescence responsible for his ousting. And an even lesser man would have posted an imbecilic AI video about it afterwards – oh, wait
“Big fan” is an understatement.
He takes Tolkien fandom to obsessive levels – he’s co-writing a script for a new LOTR film
The gleeful spite from the White House at Colbert’s cancellation has been as disgusting to watch as SC’s uplifting show was heart-warming. A great comment on the YT of that last song was ‘they’ll never feel this kind of joy and they’ll never destroy it either’.
The Hello Goodbye bit was great, but EC’s Jump Up before that was absolutely sensational. I’ve never heard the song before, and it’s hard to believe it only exists as a demo going all the way back to My Aim Is True. He must have been really chuffed to hear how it came out.
Good grief! What a great song – I had no idea who had written it when I heard it in the context of the show – or how old it was.
Brilliant!
Crikey – “Jump Up” is terrific!
“My Aim is True” is only 33 minutes long. There would’ve been plenty of space on it for “Jump Up”.
It appeared on a 33 1/3 EP called Honky Tonk Demos which came out in 1980. The audio is on YouTube. The Colbert version is a better listen though – EC should release it as a single.
It also came out as an extra track on the 1993 Rykodisc reissue of My Aim is True.
He’s just done “Only in Monroe” which is a fantastic watch, including talking about cancer while huffing helium