We’ll Meet Again AGAIN

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some sunnier day

From Slate Dec 19, 2014

The definitive video annotation of everyone who appeared during the sing-along on the The Colbert Report finale.

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70 thoughts on “We’ll Meet Again AGAIN”


  1. Every episode of “The Late Show” is special, so Stephen Colbert thought it would be best to begin his series finale with a regular monologue focused on the national conversation, free from forced celebrity cameos.

  2. Attribution: It’s late night in America by Ratt
    “Ratt” is a political cartoonist for the news website Crooks And Liars (CrooksAndLiars.com). His drawings have also appeared in The Washington Post, Politico, The Nation, and various other newspapers and periodicals. Formerly, he was a political cartoonist for The Rule of Law This Week, a project launched by the American Constitution Society, and for the Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Massachusetts, and his work was distributed by Syndicated Writers & Artists and the College Press Service. His awards include Harvard University’s Al Capp Prize for Satire, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists’ Locher Award, and a New York Press Association Commendation.


  3. Stephen Colbert’s interview with Paul McCartney is interrupted when an interdimensional wormhole opens up at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Does this spell the end of late night television as we know it?

  4. Lego Geopolitica May 21, 2026 UNITED STATES
    Trump thought silencing Colbert’s show
    was the end. He was wrong.
    After 33 years, CBS cancelled The Late Show
    with Stephen Colbert — just days after a
    $16 million settlement with Trump’s team.
    Coincidence? You decide.
    But Colbert’s last night wasn’t a goodbye.
    It was a statement. And the internet
    couldn’t stop watching.

  7. Chatting with Howard Mortman and the diner mates yesterday about who else gets credit for salvaging White House artifacts in the War of 1812: Dolley Madison’s 15-year-old slave Paul Jennings (who later bailed her out when she went broke). The site of his downtown DC townhouse is now a Nordstrom Rack.

    From yesterday’s Digital Diner 🍽️

  8. Paul Jennings (abolitionist)

    Paul Jennings (c. 1799 – 1874) was an American abolitionist and writer. Enslaved as a young man by President James Madison during and after his White House years, Jennings published, in 1865, the first White House memoir.[1] His book was A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison, described as “a singular document in the history of slavery and the early American republic.”[2]

    Living in Washington, D.C., from 1837 on, Jennings made many valuable connections and was aided by the northern Whig Senator Daniel Webster in gaining freedom. In the 1850s, Jennings traveled to Virginia, where he tracked down his children, who had grown up on a neighboring plantation with his wife, Fanny, who was also enslaved. His relatives on his mother’s side were sold by the widow Dolley Madison with Montpelier in 1844. His three sons joined the Union cause during the American Civil War.

    In 2009, his descendants were honored at Montpelier after a lecture on Jennings. They were also invited to a private viewing at the White House of Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 portrait of George Washington.

    More at Wikipedia link

  9. Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a walking cane on the floor of the United States Senate. This infamous attack occurred on May 22, 1856, exactly 170 years ago today. The attack was retaliation for Sumner’s fierce antislavery speech, “The Crime Against Kansas,” delivered days earlier, which insulted Brooks’s relative, Senator Andrew Butler.

    The Catalyst: Sumner’s speech attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act and mocked Senator Butler’s speech impediment.
    The Assault: Brooks trapped Sumner at his desk and struck him repeatedly over the head with a thick gutta-percha cane until it broke.
    The Injuries: Sumner was blinded by his own blood, knocked unconscious, and suffered severe physical and psychological trauma that kept him away from the Senate for three years.
    The Aftermath: The incident polarized the nation, turning Sumner into a martyr in the North and Brooks into a hero in the South, signaling the breakdown of reasoned debate over slavery ahead of the Civil War.

  10. Bring Out Your History Books — Find the weird and the inspirational moments in the chaotic days leading up to the desperate moment of the Declaration Of Independence. Share them on our livestream.

    Here’s today’s starter…
    Washington didn’t dodge bullets 250 years ago today—he dodged smallpox. The road to independence wasn’t a parade, it was a rolling panic attack. Dive into the dumpster fire of 1776. Every day on the DIgital Diner:

  11. Colbert’s final Late Show was a perfect reflection of the times. Every day we wake up and try to go about business as usual, but things don’t go to plan for weird reasons beyond our immediate control: the Pope won’t come out of his dressing room because the hot dog rider in his contract wasn’t followed; you’re talking with someone you like, but there’s an “anomaly” in the system that interrupts you; your friends show up to help you understand the wormhole; you feel alone; you start to express your blues, and one-by-one, others show up and you find solace in the ridiculousness of it all; you think it’s over, but it’s always darkest before the dawn, and suddenly it’s bright and you’re singing a happier song about change with lots of friends, and more join in until your space is overflowing with good, likeminded folks; eventually, the wormhole comes for us all, but there’s still that little bit of magical life that exists frozen in time, in its own, little bubble, and if you listen closely, you can still hear the opening music of those times.

    I’m not crying, you’re…oh, yes, I actually am.

  16. Every now and then I like to do the “what is a dollar from YYYY worth today”. There are many websites, including the Federal Reserve, that does the calculations.

    I just wondered about my first real job, veterinarian helper, which was a dollar and ten cents per hour. For youngsters, that was not minimum wage for adult jobs, but above the base of one dollar for most other jobs, like what I was doing. The vet asked me not to talk to the two other helpers because they were getting ninety cents per hour, and I agreed. I will give the current value below.

    I cleaned kennels, helped move animals around, cleaned the examination room, and dug holes in the back garden to bury the dead. I liked it, it was a good job and the vet was nice.

    The current value of one dollar from 1962 to today is eleven dollars. Minimum wage today is still seven dollars and fifty cents, less than what a twelve year old was earning in 1962.

  17. https://x.com/Villgecrazylady/status/2057803128380994026

    @Villgecrazylady

    I love how the journalist from the New Yorker who wrote this entire article about John Fetterman’s Israeli handler just really committed to playing dumb about what was going on here.

    Fun fact: Dovi Safier’s grandfather, Zev Wolfson, was Joe Biden’s Israeli handler.

    “He is not an official staffer or paid outside adviser. A few years ago, he “just kind of appeared” in the senator’s orbit, one former Fetterman staffer remembers. And then, suddenly, he seemed to be everywhere. Staffers would walk into Fetterman’s office, only to find Safier sitting in the room. When the senator went to Israel in 2025, Safier joined him on the trip; when Fetterman filmed Real Time With Bill Maher, Safier met up with him in Los Angeles.”

    *The full NY article is, unfortunately and as usual, behind a paywall. Anyway, is this why Fetterman changed? Not the strike nor fear for his immigrant wife, but because he has someone around him all of the time, spinning him? Or, was he chosen because of his weakened position with regard to his wife? Did he become malleable after the stroke or was he always likely to be a DINO?

  25. Paramount Global lost nearly three million global paying subscribers at its streaming service Paramount Plus during the second financial quarter (Q2) of the year, the company affirmed on Thursday.

    Of course, Ellison did just pull off that $8 billion dollar deal, so he may not care who pays $20 monthly.

  26. AOC Pulls Out Two Jars of Brown Water in Congress and Asks EPA Official: “Neither One of These Things Are Drinkable, Right?”

    Local families near the data center have reported reduced pressure and malfunctioning home appliances. They now use bottled water for cooking and drinking, while residents’ water expenses are set to increase by 33%.

    Jessica Kramer, who is Assistant Administrator for Water at the EPA, admitted at the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing that she had not received any complaints about data center construction harming drinking water.

    Kramer clarified that she had changed her mind about the correlation after Ocasio-Cortez described her observations in Morgan County, Georgia.

    When asked whether she received any complaints about how the construction of a data center could affect water quality, Kramer admitted that she was aware of concerns. Still, those concerns relate to availability, not to the quality of water.

    Currently, the Meta facility located in Morgan County consumes around 10% of the daily water volume. By 2030, the region is expected to experience a total water deficit.

  30. Today in the Diner…
    Trump’s 60M White House UFC Brawl & Colbert Exit

    Trump’s $60M White House UFC arena plan sparks outrage while Colbert’s cancellation leaves a void. Plus, George Washington’s 1776 smallpox crisis.

    We are serving up a heavy dose of absurdity today. The current president is apparently planning a $60 million UFC wrestling stadium on the White House South Lawn for his 80th birthday, proving once again that you absolutely cannot buy class. Meanwhile, we are dissecting Stephen Colbert’s bizarre wormhole exit and why the cancellation of his show feels like a massive cultural shift.

    On the historical front, we dive into May 22, 1776. George Washington was not just dodging British bullets; he was wrestling with a massive smallpox outbreak in New York and making the brutal call to deliberately expose his troops to keep them battle-ready. It is a sharp contrast to today’s leadership.

    We also cover Jeff Bezos suddenly caring about the taxes of Queens nurses, the National Guard still wandering around D.C. hotels, and the GOP blowing up a border bill. Grab your tea, specifically black tea with no flowers, and let us get into it.

    https://trailmix.cc/chat
    https://trailmix.cc
    https://trailmix.cc/alerts

    00:00 Intro
    00:14 Colbert Cancellation Fallout
    08:28 Daylight Savings Time Debate
    10:14 White House UFC Arena Scandal
    20:45 The Great Tea Debate
    32:40 National Guard DC Deployment
    37:40 TSA Sanctuary City Threats
    40:20 George Washington Smallpox Crisis
    46:48 Jeff Bezos Tax Proposal
    51:06 Congress Halts Slush Fund
    57:40 Paul Jennings Historical Truth

  31. The Gene Pool – Substack – on Jeff Bezos

    “The Post needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet, because that’s a measure of its relevance. If people won’t pay for our product, it’s not a good enough product. It would be, like, doing poetry without rhyming. It’s too easy.”

    — Jeffrey Bezos, explaining why he didn’t personally subsidize his newspaper to keep it strong.

    —It turns out the world’s fourth richest man is a dope!

    Also, a weasel, a tightwad and a buck-passer. Who knew?

    more at link

  33. https://people.com/stephen-colbert-signs-off-final-late-show-epsiode-11978850

    The show cut to a clip of Colbert and McCartney near a giant light switch to the Ed Sullivan Theater. After they pulled it, a wormhole (seen earlier in the episode) shrunk the building into a snow globe. Viewers were taken outside the theater at street-level, and as the show’s theme song played, Colbert’s dog Benny came by to sniff the globe.

    “Come on Benny, let’s go,” Colbert said, as he ended the show for good.

  34. The theme song, the last thing we heard faintly emanating from the snow globe with the entire Ed Sullivan Theatre inside, is called “Humanism.”

  36. Fox Poll:

    71% of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy

    76% disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation

    61% disapprove of trump’s overall job performance

    77% say the economy is in bad shape

    51% say their family’s finances are worse now than two years ago

  38. CBS don’t know it yet but they really did Colbert a YUGE favor—Stephen is now a free agent and a “very hot property.”
    Somewhere—Tommy Smothers is smirking.

  40. Did you know it was Dolley , not Dolly?
    Dolley Madison holds that distinction — yes, she was the first U.S. First Lady to be photographed.

    The earliest surviving image we have is a quarter-plate daguerreotype made by John Plumbe Jr. around **1846**, when Dolley was in her late 70s. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery acquired it in 2024 and identifies it as the earliest known photograph of any First Lady.

    She sat for the camera again later:
    – **July 4, 1848:** three daguerreotypes were taken, one with her niece Anna Payne
    – **1849:** a group portrait with President James Polk, Sarah Polk, future President James Buchanan, and future First Lady Harriet Lane

    Wikipedia notes the same timeline — she was “photographed on at least two occasions, making her the earliest First Lady to have a surviving photograph,” and confirms the 1846 Plumbe daguerreotype as the earliest known.

    It’s worth noting the spelling: she signed herself “Dolley,” though newspapers of her day often printed “Dolly.”

    ## When photography was invented

    Photography didn’t exist while Dolley was First Lady (1809–1817). It arrived later:

    – **1826–1827:** French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the world’s first permanent photograph, “View from the Window at Le Gras,” using a process he called heliography. It required about an eight-hour exposure on a pewter plate.
    – **1839:** Louis Daguerre announced the daguerreotype — the first practical, publicly available photographic process — which made sharp portraits on silver-plated copper possible and kicked off the portrait boom of the 1840s. Histories summarize it as Niépce fixing an image in 1826, with Daguerre’s 1839 process revolutionizing photography.

    So by the mid-1840s, when Dolley was photographed, daguerreotype studios like Plumbe’s were operating in major U.S. cities, and she became the link between the Revolutionary-era founding generation and the age of the camera.

  41. Back in the day this is when I’d start checking Pentagon pizza orders…

    From a media pal — “Trump just changed his schedule to come back to the WH tonight instead of going to Bedminster. Also not going to his son’s wedding. We could get Cuba action soon. Could be working all weekend”

  42. Haha the stump wanted to “dominate” Colbert and instead made him hotter than ever.

    Wonder how many people will be watching the Stumps new television acquisition.
    Ms Bari….better look out….the wolves are at your door, and they got no interest in dancing.

  44. Well of course, because 94 year old Raul is such a truly dangerous man, he truly is… yeah, that’s the ticket! ⚡️🔥🤩

  45. Raul Castro…….if it ever actually ever gets to court he should spend the whole time saying
    Eh? What’s that? I can’t hear you. Eh? Could you speak up? What?
    Takes hearing aid and taps on table.—

  47. They’ve done so much evil shit that it makes a long list.
    It’s like they’re a Satanic Cult.

  50. https://www.thedailybeast.com/jailed-trump-fixer-michael-cohen-plots-cash-grab-from-justice-departments-new-anti-weaponization-fund/

    Michael Cohen says he plans to ask for money from the Justice Department’s new slush fund for Trump allies who claim they were persecuted under the Joe Biden administration. Cohen is a former Trump lawyer who served jail time for tax evasion, lying to Congress, and making hush money payments to a porn star with whom the president is alleged to have had an extramarital affair.

  52. The GOP blew up their own border bill and skipped town to stop Trump’s cop-beater slush fund and billionaire ballroom. Growing a spine, or just the usual chaos?

    From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️

  53. Probably a military attack against Cuba, but possibly (or also) a medical procedure. Dialysis or something to remove excess fluid build up?
    Wouldn’t be surprised if they attack Mexico or Greenland or someplace else just to knock everyone back on their heels.

  54. Elon is coming unglued because Lupita Nyong’o has been cast as Helen of Troy. Since Helen’s father was a swan and she hatched from an egg, why does he assume he knows her color just because it’s a Greek story. Maybe he would be happy if Zeus were Idris Elba.

  55. i have a suspicion he might just be your common everyday Afrikaner racist

    he can just watch oliver stone’s “troy” if he wants a the same characters with a white cast

    but that’s not what he wants, he just wants to stoke racial animosity

  56. Exclusive: Departing Meta Staffer Posts Biting Anti-AI Video Internally Amid Mass Layoffs

    This week, Meta laid off 8,000 employees—10 percent of the company’s staff—and reassigned another 7,000 to train AI models.

    At Meta, there’s a tradition: when you leave, you make a “badge post” on the company’s internal message board.

    In an internal chat called “@shitposting” that has about 20,000 members, Frenk posted a high-production-value parody of the Don McLean song “American Pie.”

    And now I’m singing bye, bye, to professional pride
    Sign the petition, no more wishing, just deny MCI
    It’s the human touch that lets you know you’re alive
    Maybe this can’t be replaced with AI

    *Video in link

  57. It’s the live action version of “The Little Mermaid” all over. They freaked out because a mythical being was portrayed by a black woman instead of a white one. Ariel is NOT real. Racists are real, unfortunately.

  59. Mystery Deepens Around Missing New Jersey Congressman: ‘There’s No Cameras Where Tom Is’

    It has now been well over two months since Rep. Tom Kean Jr. last cast a vote in Congress—and there’s still no clear answer to where he’s been.

    When called, Kean’s office continues to offer the same explanation—that the two-term Republican from New Jersey’s 7th District is dealing with “a personal health condition” and will return “very soon.”

    His social media accounts have remained active throughout, but the posts are paired with old photos, with no signs of present activity.

    Kean’s absence comes at a time when his party holds only a narrow majority in the House. In other words: every vote counts.

    As we first reported in April, Kean holds New Jersey’s most competitive congressional seat—one national Democrats have been aggressively targeting. His campaign had $3.35 million in cash on hand as of the first quarter. His staff maintains he has no plans to exit the race.

  60. Mysteriously vanished GOP congressman still trading stocks despite missing 50 votes

    Mysteriously vanished GOP congressman still trading stocks despite missing 50 votes

    Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) has rapidly become one of the biggest mysteries on Capitol Hill, as he has been absent for weeks due to an unspecified medical issue his office will not elaborate on, with no timeline for when he might return.

    Even while he is gone, however, he appears to still be making stock trades.

    According to Dave Levinthal of NOTUS, “Congressional financial records reviewed by NOTUS indicate Kean bought and sold shares of eight different stocks between March 10 and March 31, including those of Amcor, Chubb Limited, First Citizens BancShares, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo.”

    In the past, Kean, who was first elected to Congress in 2022, has been accused of violating the STOCK Act, a financial disclosure law that is meant to make it harder for members of Congress to illegally trade stocks off inside legislative information.

    A report in 2024 detailed how dozens of members of Congress, in both parties, have committed similar violations, playing fast and loose with rules about when they must report on financial trades.

  61. I have been watching all these people freaking out. It’s a story; a lot is left to your own imagination. Just like I see my Greek Gods looking like they do in the Percy Jackson series because I am a dork like that, BUT all we know for sure is that Helen “face that launched a thousand ships.” I like that they are casting outside the norm and not stereotypical.

  63. it is a terrible cast but who cares besides racists

    matt damon as odysseus more offensive

  65. https://x.com/ProjectConstitu/status/2057899092634701945

    @ProjectConstitu

    TURNING POINT USA EXPOSED: $20 MILLION
    “Field Program” Spent on FAKE Chapters That Don’t Even Exist

    @ZeeToTheHill and @unfamericatour dropped part 1 of their documentary yesterday and the internet has exploded with receipts.

    Their new documentary reveals:
    Field reps were given insane quotas — 40 new chapters per month

    Kids were bribed with gift cards to become fake
    “president, vice president, and secretary” of clubs that never held a single event

    A 30-something woman was able to create an official Club America / Turning Point chapter at Wilkes County Training School — a building that has been completely closed and vacant since 2011

    TPUSA still lists these ghost chapters as active.
    Meanwhile, in their own official tax filings, Turning Point claims they spent $20 MILLION on their “field program” and are active on over 3,300 high schools and college campuses.

    The obvious question everyone should be asking:
    Where the hell did the $20 million actually go?

    This isn’t a “student movement.” This is straight-up waste, fraud, and abuse being sold to donors.

  67. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2026/05/22/new-york-city-collects-9-million-from-amazon/90212472007/

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that New York City collected more than $9 million in unpaid idling fines from Amazon, a move that comes as he publicly debates Jeff Bezos over the mayor’s tax proposals aimed at the ultra‑wealthy.

    The fines are alleged to stem from Amazon delivery trucks illegally idling and contributing to air pollution in the city.

    Mamdani said the collection shows that no company, regardless of size or power, is above the law.

    In the mayor’s statement, Amazon’s market value was cited as roughly $2 trillion.

  68. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/trump-ai-executive-order-china-b2981740.html

    Donald Trump has called off the signing of an executive order that would have added safety guardrails to new artificial intelligence models, citing concerns that the US could lose its AI dominance to China.

    The US president was due to sign the executive order at a ceremony on Thursday, though postponed the plans due to reported pressure from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and xAI founder Elon Musk.

    “I think it gets in the way of, you know, we’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters of the postponement in the Oval Office.

    *The dumbest timeline headed up by the dumbest guy.

  69. “I have a thing called Iran, and other things.” Are the “other things” medical procedures, countries, or both?

    It was the worst of times, it was the dumbest of times. (The “b” is silent.) FFS!

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