Here’s Every Cameo In The Epic Finale Of ‘The Colbert Report’

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Stephen Colbert’s final episode of “The Colbert Report” was filled with a mind-boggling amount of cameos from his friends in politics, the media and Hollywood.

Some guests, like actor James Franco, seemed to pop up everywhere. Others, like Gloria Steinem, nearly managed to avoid the cameras altogether. Trying to determine just who was on set Thursday night is almost like playing a real-life game of Where’s Waldo.

So here’s a list of everyone that bid farewell to Colbert with a group rendition of “We’ll Meet Again” — at least everyone that we could identify.

Randy Newman plays the piano as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart kick off “We’ll Meet Again.”

From left to right: Willie Nelson, Bryan Cranston, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Francis Collins.

From left to right: Tom Brokaw, Mandy Patinkin, Lil’ Buck, Yo Yo Ma and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

From left to right: Sam Waterston, Jeff Daniels, Cyndi Lauper, Big Bird, Trevor Potter and Keith Olbermann.

From left to right: Andrew Sullivan, David Hallberg, Katie Couric, Ken Burns and Ric Ocasek.

From left to right: Charlie Rose, Samantha Power, Michael Stipe, James Franco and Cookie Monster.

From left to right: Toby Keith, Dean Kamen and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

From left to right: James Franco, David Gregory, Jeff Tweedy, Christiane Amanpour, Sir Patrick Stewart and Andy Cohen.

The cameos start getting harder to spot from here on out. Behind Colbert and Stewart are Bill de Blasio and Andrew Young. To the right is U.S. Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno and Barry Manilow, with George Saunders lurking behind them.

Stone Phillips, Peter Frampton, Arianna Huffington and Naquasia Legrand, who is a fast food worker and activist.

From left to right: Alan Alda, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), George Lucas, Alexi Lalas and Jonathan Batiste.

From left to right: James Franco, Andy Cohen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Elijah Wood, Henry Kissinger, Mike Huckabee, Bob Costas and Tim Meadows.

Pussy Riot.

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Former President Bill Clinton.

Astronaut Terry Virts joins in from the International Space Station.

J.J. Abrams.

From left to right: Jake Tapper, astronaut Garrett Reisman, Lesley Stahl, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Terry Gross, Jeffrey Toobin, Norm Ornstein and Ed Viesturs.

From left to right: Ed Viesturs, Shepard Fairey, Emily Bazelon, David Leonhardt, Matt Taibbi, Steven Pinker (back row), Jonathan Alter, Father Jim Martin (back row) and Eliot Spitzer.

Front row, from left to right: Colbert’s son John, his daughter Madeleine, his wife Evie and Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless. Back row, from left to right: cosmologist Brian Greene, Colbert’s son Peter, and Paulina Porizkova. Nate Silver, who isn’t pictured, is standing behind John.

From left to right: Cliff Sloan, Thomas Friedman, David Remnick, Paul Krugman and Bing West. CNBC’s Jim Cramer is hanging out behind Krugman’s head.

From left: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), Richard Clarke, Jimmy Wales, Grover Norquist, Maureen Dowd, Paul Rieckhoff, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Ann Patchett, Dan Savage and Robert Pinsky.

You can spot Mark Cuban hiding behind Charlie Rose and Cass Sunstein hanging out to the far right. Marvel Comics’ Joe Quesada stands to the left of Sunstein and behind Robert Pinsky.

Watch the segment below:

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for trajan trajan says:

    Ha. Wonder if Jimmy Cramer and Jon Stewart bumped into each other at all.

  2. Avatar for 1gg 1gg says:

    Stephen you will be missed.

  3. Given this lineup, I think it’s safe to say that Stephen Colbert is a uniter, not a divider.

  4. Avatar for tomj tomj says:

    I loved the attention to detail, specifically how Colbert PAC lawyer Trevor Potter was holding the briefcase from which he always whipped out the legal documents for Stephen to sign.

  5. Avatar for jinnj jinnj says:

    Based on the various only partially identifiable individuals - I am saying that I most certainly was there!

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