Stephen Colbert’s Last ‘Late Show’: Laughing Well Is the Best Revenge

The “Late Show” cancellation was a disappointment. But a surreally lovely final episode turned it into a cancellebration.

He didn’t land the pope, but he got a Beatle. He didn’t have a new project to announce, but he left us with a song (in fact two). He didn’t choose to end his show, but he ended it his own weird, wonderful way.

Stephen Colbert hosted his final “Late Show” on Thursday night, completing the story of the TV year’s most notorious and rancorous cancellation. But his final hour-plus — an emotional and delightfully bizarre wake for a comedy institution — turned it into a cancellebration.