Towards the end of It’s A Wonderful Life, after George Bailey regains his will to live, he runs joyously through the streets of his hometown of Bedford Falls, shouting Merry Christmas to everyone and everything in sight.
Even Mr. Potter, the villainous slumlord who tried to crush George’s business by stealing his money, and crush his soul by driving him into suicidal existential despair.
Hey, Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!, George beams as he spots his nemesis in the window and musters a big wide grin on his way home to a house full of family and friends.
Merry Christmas to you – in jail!, Potter bellows back to him, sure that George will be arrested for embezzlement the minute he steps foot in the door due to the money Potter clandestinely pilfered and the police and bank examiners he arranged to be at his home – on Christmas Eve, no less!
Though that Frank Capra ending is 80 years old I couldn’t help but think of it as Stephen Colbert gracefully exited the stage of The Ed Sullivan Theatre after 11 years as the host of The Late Show, and the bile driven rage tweeting that followed right after by our ever rageful Gloater-in-Chief, who himself turns eighty years old next month.
As Colbert was joined by his mentor Jon Stewart, and the quartet of his fellow “competing” talk show hosts – Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver – all of whose shows went willfully dark in support of him that night, he talked about how his staff referred to the show as “the joy machine.”
Contrast that to the late-night weigh-in from the White House (Note: 1:52 am, to be exact) where our own Mr. Potter bellowed:
Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!
That was followed by another tweet the following day – an AI video where AI GLOTUS yanks AI Colbert away during his monologue, deposits him in a dumpster and triumphantly gyrates to, YMCA.
Gay 1979 is calling and WE want our song back.
Not to mention, do he and his supporters even know what that song is really about????
Let me give you a clue:
It’s fun to stay at the YMCA, They have everything for young men to enjoy, You can hang out with all the boys…
It seemed only fitting that Colbert’s final guest was Paul McCartney, a guy known for his creativity and kindness, not to mention his status as a member of The Beatles, which first debuted to American and worldwide audiences at that very same Ed Sullivan Theatre in 1964.
After recalling those days and sharing some memories, as well as briefly touching on America as iconic in entertainment and as a leader of “democracy,” Sir Paul was ushered out so Colbert and his gang of hosts could take charge backstage and try to conquer a symbolic wormhole portal that metaphorically threatened to swallow him and his show whole, along with any of the hosts that might dare to misbehave there or in the future.
It seemed like that extended comedy bit would be the end, especially once Colbert himself was inevitably sucked into that deep black hole of nothingness. But luckily that was only momentary.
He quickly reappeared in a dark afterlife-type void, singing along with Elvis Costello, his former bandleader John Batiste, and current bandleader Louis Cato, to a whimsical vintage Costello tune about political hypocrisy, Jump Up.
Again, a fitting, if this time more melancholy, way to wrap up. But luckily that wasn’t all either.
Very quickly the scene transitioned back to the fully lit Ed Sullivan Theatre where Paul McCartney stood center stage with a large in-house band performing the classic Beatles tune, Hello Goodbye.
As soon as Paul hit those memorable opening notes and sang the immortal words:
You Say Yes, I Say No, You Say Stop, And I say “Go, Go, Go,” Oh, no!….
Well, let’s say there was not a dry baby boomer eye in this house. Or, I suspect, many others.
Though how could you be sad when you saw the entire staff join him onstage, gleefully singing and dancing, along with the audience on their feet, led by Paul.
Talk about full circle reinvention. That song was first introduced to America by Sullivan from that stage on his show in 1967 with a filmed performance by The Beatles from England.
Yes, Colbert no longer has a show on CBS, a move that was clearly facilitated by behind-the-scenes GLOTUS pressure on the Ellison family and its desire for the government to approve its CBS-Paramount merger with Warner Bros.
Yet Colbert was sent off with a cavalcade of many of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry all year, culminating with a final week of accolades, ingenuity and emotion surrounded by countless friends and many members of his immediate, close knit real-life family.
According to the host, that will all culminate this Memorial Day weekend when even more members of the Colbert clan will gather together to attend the wedding of his beloved brother in Washington, DC.
Ironically, the same place our GLOTUS will be since he willingly chose NOT to attend the wedding of his oldest son.
Jump Up/Hello, Goodbye – Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste & Stephen Colbert
notes from a chair 