Stephen Colbert Throws The World's Most Patriotic Yard Sale

As Stephen Colbert has grown ever closer to tonight's series finale of The Colbert Report, he's had a lot to take care of, from revisiting his On Notice list to hosting the actual president as a guest. But in addition to his personal goals for the content of these final shows, there are also practical considerations, like: cleaning out the studio. To that end, Stephen did the only sensible thing: he bought some posterboard and some Swisher Sweets and threw together a yard sale.

Unlike his old job, Stephen hasn't spent that much time interacting with people who aren't in on the joke, so I think my favourite part of this bit is seeing him drop character to be so warm and welcoming to the elderly non-native English speaker who clearly has no fucking idea who Stephen is. Over the last few weeks, Stephen has dropped character on occasion -- who among us hasn't succumbed to senioritis? -- but this was especially fun in giving us a preview of how he may end up interacting with normal people in his next gig. And though the opening credits of this penultimate episode try to make a self-deprecating joke about the state of the show in its last gasps...

...my rating looks a lot more like this.