Stephen Colbert got a heartfelt farewell from Jon Stewart on Thursday ahead of the late night show’s final episode.
During Tuesday’s episode of The late showthe 63-year-old comedian and artist shared advice he once received from former Late show host David Letterman after The Jon Stewart Show was canceled in 1995.
The Daily show star recalled, “He said, ‘Don’t confuse cancellation with failure.’ I thought that was profound.”
“But then he said: ‘But in this case it’s also a failure.’”
Elsewhere in the show, Stewart surprised Colbert with special gifts and joked about having no musical or poetic talent.
He said, “Everyone has come up with something. They sang you a song, they wrote you a poem. I have no talent, so I won’t do that.”
”And also: why would you do that? A momentary wind of nothingness that blows away like nonsense. You deserve something tangible. Something that you have earned.”
Stewart said, “You deserve a gift that will honor the sacrifice and work you put into this show and show you the life you can live and the life I’m living now that I’m not really in show business.”
When Stewart said, “Guys, bring it out,” two stagehands brought out two luxury armchairs for the couple.
Stewart joked: “You’ll love watching Matlock in this m*****f*****! Let me tell you something.”
The surprises didn’t stop there, however. Stewart then introduced Andra Day, who sang her song Get up for Colbert.
The Late show will wrap Thursday, 10 months after Colbert confirmed it CBS had decided to end the long-running show
