Stephen Colbert Ended The Late Show With Paul McCartney, Bryan Cranston, and a Fake Pope 🎤📺

After more than 1,800 episodes, Stephen Colbert officially signed off from The Late Show Thursday night… and somehow the finale managed to feel emotional, weird, musical, and mildly unhinged all at once.

Honestly? Perfect ending.

The final episode featured Paul McCartney, who sat down with Colbert before joining him on stage for a loud, joyful performance of “Hello, Goodbye.”

Which is either beautiful symbolism… or the most expensive karaoke night in TV history.

At the start of the show, Colbert reflected on the “joy” of making the series before immediately steering into absurdity by pretending his final guest was Pope Leo XIV.

The fake pope then refused to come out because his dressing room snacks weren’t good enough and apparently lacked hot dogs.

As one does.

The monologue also got hilariously interrupted by Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, all pretending to be annoyed they weren’t the show’s final guest.

Meanwhile, the episode slowly evolved into what can only be described as “a beautiful late-night fever dream.”

There was music from Elvis Costello, appearances from Jon Batiste and Louis Cato, and eventually the entire theatre turned into a literal snow globe after McCartney symbolically shut off the building’s power.

RELATED: Stephen Colbert Is Saying Goodbye to Late Night TV 🎤📺

Sure. Why not.

The final week of guests also included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen and David Byrne.

And yes, they also somehow did a fish-themed parody of “It’s Raining Men.”