It’s the end of the year as we know it, and we all feel just fine about that.
Between disasters, beloved artists dying and the 2016 presidential election debacle, we’d all like to forget these last 12 months. That’s unlikely to happen, but at least we can put them in our rear-view mirror soon. Stephen Colbert, Michael Stipe and James Franco saw to that on Thursday.
The respective “Late Show” and R.E.M. frontmen updated “It’s the End of the World” for 2016 with last night’s “It’s the End of the Year as We Know It.” Stipe was so bummed he could barely participate; Franco came out for the crescendo.
“Oh, great/It starts with an outbreak/Zika and Harambe/Led is in the water main,” Colbert kicks the whole thing off.
Later, lyrics griping about Ben Affleck as Batman make the pop culture cut, as do “Pokemon Go,” Ryan Lochte’s hair and Ken Bone mentions. Naturally, there’s plenty of Donald Trump to go around.
Note how the iconic “Leonard Berstein” line was replaced with “Leonard Cohen died.” Well done. Watch the video above and drink a toast to 2017.