11 Best ‘Late Show’ Musical Parodies & Original Bangers, Ahead of Stephen Colbert’s Swan Song

We’re gonna miss him when he’s gone. Well, except for one particular perennially online resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., anyway.

After 11 years and nearly 1,800 episodes, Stephen Colbert is winding down his run on The Late Show on May 21. The CBS late-night show has been a frequent target of ire for President Trump over his two terms in office, with Colbert relentlessly skewering the man he’s dubbed “Tangerine Palpatine” and Mar-a-Lardo” in his nightly monologues.

And while Trump and the FCC have not threatened Colbert in the same way they’ve attacked fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, in July 2025, CBS confirmed it was ending the franchise Colbert took over from David Letterman — who ended his run on May 20, 2015 — due to what it claimed were “financial constraints” and declining ad revenue.

Colbert has had plenty to say about why he thinks the beloved show is really ending, hardly holding his fire about his contempt and distaste for the Trump administration’s actions to restrain criticism of his administration, in much the same way he held previous presidents’ feet to the fire. OK, maybe a bit more, but can you blame him?

One of the things fans will miss the most is Colbert’s thoughtful, engaged interviews with his guests, from his deep geek-out sessions with most frequent guest astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, to last August’s toe-to-toe with Josh Brolin during an impromptu back-and-forth recitation from act 3 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

We’ll also miss his team’s razor-sharp song parodies of the day’s headlines, short, pithy bits that often opened the show, setting the stage for finely tuned monologues filled with cutting wit and comedic bull’s-eyes of contempt. And while we’re at it, we threw in a few original tunes from the team that are just so perfectly perfect.

So, in honor of the last hurrah, we’ve gathered 11 of our favorite song parodies and loving tributes, from the anti-anti-immigration ditty “ICE ICE Baby” to the absolute papal banger “They Not Pious” and, of course, the Lord of the Rings tribute “Number One Triller.”

Check them out.