With just five episodes remaining before The Late Show signs off for good, Stephen Colbert was joined on Thursday night by his predecessor, David Letterman, with the pair reprising a legendary bit from Letterman’s tenure as host.
“Who owns this stuff?” Letterman asked Colbert as he stroked the fabric of the chair he was sitting on.
“It all belongs to the CBS Paramount Corporation,” Colbert responded.
“This is nice. It would be a shame if something happened it,” Letterman replied, before calling out several stagehands to take the set’s furniture to the roof.
Following a commercial break, the two late-night hosts appeared on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman explained, “We are up here for the wanton destruction of CBS property.”
Added Colbert: “This is a true story: when I first got this gig, one of the first things they told me before we even moved into the offices is that I would not be allowed to throw anything off of the roof of the Ed Sullivan building because evidently there was a problem with a previous tenant… but we’re at the end now, so all bets are off.”
Letterman and Colbert then proceeded to toss several CBS-owned chairs, along with watermelons and a cake, from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theatre to a CBS-branded target down below.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for our country,” Letterman told Colbert to close the segment, before delivering one final message to “the folks at CBS.”
“In the words of the great Ed Murrow,” Letterman said, “good night and good luck, motherfuckers!”
