Colbert Report goes out with an all-star song, not a whimper

Stephen Colbert turned the final episode of his infamously controversial talk show The Colbert Report into an all-star sing-along and perhaps even hinted at a comeback for his wickedly funny persona as his guests jammed to the tune of “We’ll meet again”.

Colbert is departing the show to replace David Letterman on The Late Show as of August or September 2015.

The shows final episode featured an all-star guest list ranging from Jon Stewart, James Franco, George Lucas, Bryan Cranston, Willie Nelson through to pre-recorded appearances by J.J. Abrams and Bill Clinton.

Everyone from Barrack Obama, to fellow comedians Steve Carrell and Mindy Kaling also took to Twitter to say goodbye to the show.

Fans live tweeted the episode and vented their feelings about the show ending.

One speedy fan was even able to ‘officially’ end the era, updating the shows Wikipedia page.

Over the shows nine year run Colbert, who projected a conservative persona, ran a series of politically fuelled and satirical gags for the entertainment of the audience which had an unlikely affect on its audience.

Viewers who tuned in regularly during the 2012 presidential campaign saw Colbert launch his own political action committee, ‘Colbert Super PAC’. Researchers at Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Pew Research Center found that viewers of the show during this time were more educated on the topic of campaign finance law than those of regular news broadcasts.

Bruce Hardy, a senior researcher for Annenberg, said they were surprised by the result.

“What we weren’t kind of expecting was the fact that 'The Colbert Report’ would outperform other news sources in teaching citizens about these groups.”

Here are some other iconic Colbert moments.