Stephen Colbert has filed his final report for Comedy Central.
"The Colbert Report" host started his final episode like any of the other 1,447 episodes over the last nine seasons. He gave a report on how a pickup truck, previously owned by a Texas plumber, ended up in Syria with an anti-aircraft gun in the bed.
He segued the report to his charity auction where fans raised more than $313,000 dollars for his anchor desk and fireplace mantle. Colbert asked that the set pieces also not end up in Syria with massive weaponry strapped onto it.
Colbert then gave his final "Word" titled "Same to you, pal." "The Word" segment made its debut in the show's first episode back in 2005 with the introduction of "truthiness."
His only scheduled guest "Grimmy" arrived after the commercial break, but before the two could sit down to talk, Colbert accidentally shot and killed the Grim Reaper character with his favorite gun "Sweetness." Since he "killed" death, he therefore had achieved immortality and no longer needed to say goodbye.
Instead, he gathered a studio full of incredible guests from the media, politics, entertainment and sports to join him, Jon Stewart and Randy Newman on piano performing the 1939 classic "We'll Meet Again."
The star-studded sing-a-long included Tom Brokaw, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Katie Couric, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, George Lucas, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, Mike Huckabee, Bryan Cranston and dozens more. His other famous friends such as Bill Clinton, J.J. Abrams, Vince Gilligan (still chained in Colbert's basement writing more "Breaking Bad") and Smaug, the dragon from "The Hobbit," also sent in video of them singing along.
When the music ended, Colbert had moved to the roof of his studio, pondering his next move. He received some assistance from Santa Claus, Abraham Lincoln (who's really a unicorn) and the man with all the answers, "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek. After a spin around the moon in Santa's sleigh, Colbert addressed his audience to thank his staff, his family and the fans of Colbert Nation.
After one last commercial break, Stewart thanked his former correspondent for that one last report which poses the question: Did Stephen Colbert really have his own show or did he just file an extremely extensive report for "The Daily Show?"
And in one final moment, the show gave a behind-the-scenes look at Stewart handing over the air to Colbert in a 2010 episode. The exchange pulls back the curtain on the real Stephen Colbert.
STEWART: "Let's go back into our funny characters... Hey, Stephen."
COLBERT: "Hi, Jon."
STEWART: "What are you doing?"
COLBERT: "I'm getting angry at liberals."
We will meet Colbert again. We do know where, but we don't know when. The late-night host will move to network television to take over CBS's "The Late Show" from David Letterman sometime next summer.
