What To Know
- Stephen Colbert had 15 famous friends join him for “The Colbert Questionert” on the penultimate episode of The Late Show.
- The celebrities asked the late-night host 15 questions he normally asks his guests to get to know them better.
Stephen Colbert turned his chair over to some familiar faces on the second-to-last episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The late-night host is saying goodbye to his show on May 21, and for the penultimate episode, he turned the tables by letting his famous friends grill him.
Colbert took part in his famous “Colbert Questionert” on the May 20 episode, putting himself in the hot seat to answer the 15 questions from a recurring segment he usually plays with guests. To ask the questions, he enlisted the help of celebrities including Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, and more.
John Dickerson was the first star to show up to narrate the night, and he introduced Crystal to the stage. Crystal asked Colbert, “What is the best sandwich?” Colbert said he considers this “one of the toughest questions.” For the summer months, Colbert prefers a tomato sandwich on thin white bread, with salt, pepper, and maybe a little mayo. But for the rest of the year, the best sandwich is “hot pastrami on rye with a little bit of mustard and, if the guy behind the counter is willing, a little coleslaw,” Colbert confirmed.
“Weird Al” Yankovic asked Colbert, “What was the first concert you attended?” His answer: “It was Chuck Mangione, the Children of Sanchez tour.” To Josh Brolin, who asked, “What is the scariest animal?”, Colbert responded, “A trapdoor spider.” Martha Stewart‘s question was, “Apples or oranges,” and Colbert pointed out, “You can’t put peanut butter on an orange, so I will bite the apple.”
Next, Mark Hamill asked, “Have you ever asked someone else for their autograph?” Colbert said he has: “I did that with Steve Martin the first time he was on the show.” When Jim Gaffigan questioned, “What do you think happens when we die?”, Colbert answered, “I think there is some continuance of some kind, but it’s like a dispersion of the self into some other greater being.”
Jeff Daniels read the question, “What is your favorite action movie,” and Colbert said, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Haddish’s question was whether Colbert prefers the window or aisle seat on the plane, and he said aisle because he “has the bladder of a baby chipmunk.”
Colbert’s wife, Evie, came out next to ask him, “What is your favorite smell?” and he said, “My favorite smell is when we are going out someplace and you go upstairs to get ready first and I come up to follow you and when I get to the top of the stairs, I know you’ve already gotten out of the shower because I can smell that rose lotion you use … and I know you’re in there wearing very little.”
Amy Sedaris asked Colbert his least favorite smell. He recalled a time in his childhood when a neighbor was cleaning out under her sink and a bag of grease had broken and poured into a bag of sugar, which was “rancid.” Ben Stiller wondered about Colbert’s earliest memory (his mom on a ladder painting a bedroom while he tried to tell her about a dream he had the night before), and Aubrey Plaza asked if he prefers cats or dogs (dogs).
When James Taylor came out, he asked what song Colbert would listen to for the rest of his life (Glenn Gould’s execution of Mendelssohn’s “Song Without Words” in E major’s Opus 19 No. 1 … at the “risk of sounding pretentious.”) DeNiro asked, “What number am I thinking of?” and Colbert said, “three,” to which De Niro joked, “I thought it would be 2.5 million, which is the number of Epstein files Trump still hasn’t released.”
Dickerson asked the final question: “How would you describe the rest of your life in five words?” Colbert answered, “My family, my friends, fun.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Final Episode, Thursday, May 21, 11:35/10:35c, CBS