After 9 years and nearly 1,500 episodes, the late-night satirical masterpiece known as The Colbert Report has come to an end.
The finale last Thursday featured cameos from a bevy of celebrity guests who joined in for a rousing rendition of "We'll Meet Again," featuring the likes of Patrick Stewart, James Franco, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Katie Couric, Big Bird, former boss John Stewart, and many more. For long-time fans of the series, it was a truly beautiful moment. And watching Colbert, Alex Trebec, and Abraham Lincoln (who exposed himself as a unicorn) all fly away on Santa's sleigh was the perfect way to close the book on an era.
Of course, this isn't the end for the comedian. He'll be starting his reign as the host of the Late Show in 2015, taking over for David Letterman when he retires. The satirical right-wing persona we've come to love (well, some of us), has seen his last days on air, however. And so to honor the great run, here are some of the best moments from The Colbert Report.
"Truthiness," October 2005
On Stephen's debut episode, he debuted his "The Word" segment, where he coined the term "truthiness," defined as a quality characterizing a "truth" that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. In his routine, Colbertsatirized the misuse of appeal to emotion and "gut feeling" as a rhetorical device in contemporaneous socio-political discourse.
It was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster. And Colbert was just getting started.
Presidential Campaign, 2007
On October 16, 2007, Colbert announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. While the legitimacy of the campaign was constantly called into question (he was sponsored by Doritos), it was fun while it lasted. A few weeks later, the campaign came to an end after the South Carolina Democratic Party voted to refuse Colbert's application to be put on the ballot.
"Suq Madiq," August 2011
Okay, so maybe it's just hilarious to watch a comedian break character. Colbert cracked up again over the name of a (fictional) Muslim contributor to the Colbert Super Pac named "Suq Madiq," and even worse, his mother, "Munchma Quchi." According to Internet legend (aka Reddit), the real reason Colbert laughed so hard in this segment was because they switched out the stock photo they had used in rehearsal and put in one of his mother-in-law, but it was probably just because he had to say "Munchma Quchi" on television.
"Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak," January 2012
A few months before the late author's passing, Stephen sat down with the writer of Where the Wilds Things Are for a two-part interview. The segment became an instant classic, with Colbert introducing Sendak to the pleasures of huffing permanent markers and convincing the author to teach him how to illustrate. In the interview, Sendak played up his ornery side, making him an ideal foil for Colbert's faux-populist act. But the resulting video is an endearing portrait of a man whose work touched the lives of so many.
Week in Iraq, 2009
In 2009, Colbert took The Report to Iraq to do four shows from the Camp Victory military base. And, appearing via satellite, President Obama made sure that Colbert got the full armed-forces experience — by mandating an on-air buzzcut. He later said that if he were to run for president again in 2012, he would count his week in Iraq as military service.
