Stephen Colbert Celebrates Worst of The Late Show as He Kicks Off Final Week

The final week of The Late Show is here, and Stephen Colbert is marking the occasion by taking a trip down memory lane, highlighting some of the worst ideas that never made it to air.

After an opening skit featuring Michael Keaton as a pigeon, Colbert said, “Here’s the thing: we ran out of shows, and we couldn’t fit the bit in. But then I thought, ‘Wait, what if we did a worst of The Late Show episode?’ It’d feature all of the weird bits that either completely failed or things that we as a staff liked but thought the audience would absolutely hate. You know, as if the ratings didn’t even matter anymore.”

Colbert did away with his usual opening monologue, explaining, “There’s so many important things going on in the world, but a lot of that stuff’s a drag. Here’s the deal: We thought we might just take it a little easy tonight because we’ve been doing this show for almost 11 years, almost 1,800 shows at this point.”

While most shows would air a “best of,” the comedian said he “thought it would be more fun to show you stuff we’ve made and never aired and call it ‘The Worst of The Late Show.’ Although technically, what you’re about to see is the best worst stuff we ever made. Still, not great.”

This included a segment called the “Graphics Graveyard,” based on a Slack channel where Late Show staffers share their failed ideas. Colbert pointed out one particular graphic that declared Hillary Clinton the winner of the 2016 presidential election.

“Oh, grow up. It all worked out fine,” a member of the graphics team quipped as Colbert highlighted the Clinton pic.

Other failed graphics included a “Thanksgiving porn magazine” called “Giblets,” a Martha Stewart Living cover that read “Donner party or dinner party,” a meme called Trump-tosterone, and a book called “If You Ban This Book You’ll Smell Like a Butt!”

The final clip was an animated segment of President Trump and Snow White. “What I originally said in this animation was deemed unacceptable by CBS standards and practices,” the Trump caricature said.

Colbert also aired some never-before-seen sketches, including a parody commercial for Erotic Body Gravy, a product for post-Thanksgiving dinner sex. “When I watched it, I said, ‘Those actors are way too attractive for comedy.’ You guys ended up just making softcore gravy porn,” the late-night host stated.

To close out the show, Colbert sang a song with Late Show writer Michael Cruz Kayne called “It’s Raining Fish,” set to the tune of “It’s Raining Men.” Colbert noted that he’d rejected the idea four times over the years.

On a serious note, Colbert concluded, “We never could’ve made all that terrible stuff — as well as some of the good stuff we showed you — without the amazing people in this room. This staff is so brilliant, collaborative, so creative and so kind.”

He then encouraged his viewers to tune into the final three episodes, saying, “They’ll be better than this!”

The Late Showwill air its final ever episode next Thursday (May 21). In solidarity, fellow late-night shows,Jimmy Kimmel Live!andThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, will go dark that night.