Stephen Colbert and David Letterman blew off some network steam and smashed some network stuff last night in a funny and oddly poignant call-back to one of Letterman’s signature late-night bits: Throwing things from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
With the CBS eye logo providing a helpful sidewalk target, the two Late Show hosts tossed – or, rather, supervised the stagehand tossing – some studio chairs (it only took two before the target was smashed, releasing lots of colorful balls into the street) and, inevitably watermelons, the dropping of which was one of the favorite stunts from the old Late Show with David Letterman years.
The pair finished up with Colbert sending a congratulatory cake from the network – a multi-layered wedding-style beast – sailing downward.
Actually, the pair finished up with Letterman’s parting words for CBS: “In the words of the great Ed Murrow, good night and good luck, motherf*ckers!”
Before their rooftop adventure, Letterman took to the couch to chat with his successor – he arrived to a standing ovation from the audience and the house band’s rendition of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
“How about Paul and the band,” Letterman joked in reference to his old sidekick. Turning to the audience, Letterman said about the ovation, “I came very close to being teary about that, so thank you everybody.”
Letterman then got to the point: “I have every right to be pissed off, so I’ll be pissed off here a little bit. Because you folks wouldn’t be at this theater if it weren’t for me, and Stephen wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. We rebuilt this theater and then Stephen came in here and, look at this, it’s like the Bellagio. As we all all understand, you can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice. So that’s the good news.”
Letterman kept going. “You know what I’m really worried about? What I’m really worried about is what will become of the Jimmys? Are they going to be all right?”
Responded Colbert, “We’ve got a plan to put them in a captive breeding program.”
Watch the rooftop clip above, and the interview segment below.
