The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night unwrapped a bittersweet gift for viewers: the CBS talker’s final holiday cartoon.
“Colbert’s Canceled Christmas: The Final Noel,” narrated by Nick Offerman, was a thinly veiled metaphor for The Late Show‘s surprising fate, as dictated by CBS’ axing of the program back in July.
“They’re canceling Christmas?! But we’re the No. 1 holiday!” bellowed Santa upon learning that “King Jagbag” (aka Trump) aimed to put Kris Kringle out of business.
Soon enough, ICE—led by Rudolph’s frenemy, Bumble the abominable snowman—stormed the North Pole to grab Santa and his workers. “Round up the elves! They’re foreign invaders!” shouted Stephen Miller through a bullhorn.
“New rules: no fatties, no beardos,” announced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as RFK Jr. plowed into Rudolph with his car (and instantly thought, “Lunch!”), and DHS boss Kristi Noem unleashed alligators.
“The workshop you’ve got here is ugly and bold/So I’ll make it my ballroom and fill it with gold!” rhymed Trump, arriving on the scene.
As Santa and the elves toiled in ICE detention alongside Muppets, the Cat in the Hat, Teletubbies, Arthur, and a disturbingly jacked Caillou, Trump hosted A Christmerican Trumpmas, a TV special during which he used Santa’s prized sack to collect bribes.
Foraging for leverage, Santa realized his jail cell had previously been inhabited by Trump’s “best and only friend.” And behind a brick marked, “It’s a Wonderful Secret,” St. Nick found the naughtiest naughty list of all.
Alas, just as Santa traveled via sewage pipe to escape ICE and confront Trump with the damning doc, POTUS’ “neck vagina” let loose a tentacled creature that snatched it away. But in the end, the elves and other escaped detainees arrived to save the day.
“Donald, you’re canceled!” declared Santa.
When an elf asked Santa what he will do now, the jolly figure shrugged, “I dunno, a podcast?”—as many have speculated Colbert himself may do come June 2026. But then a cartoon Colbert himself rode up on a sleigh to say, “I heard a show with Rachel Maddow on Netflix!”
The Late Show has made it an annual tradition to produce a holiday cartoon skewering Trump and company for its final episode of the year. Last December gave us “It’s a Worm-derful Life,” which riffed on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revelation that doctors had found a dead parasitic worm in his brain, and also found Elon Musk put in charge of Christmas efficiency as part of his D.O.U.C.H.E. program.
The 2023 cartoon, “The Indict-Mare Before Christmas,” followed Trump trying to slither his way out of an indictment by having Santa vouch for him. It also lampooned Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and others.
The Late Show‘s first animated holiday short, “A Very Special Counsel Christmas,” came in 2018, but the CBS talker’s tradition of political animation predates that. A cartoon Trump began appearing on The Late Show during its 2016 election coverage, ultimately prompting the Colbert-produced Showtime spinoff Our Cartoon President (which aired 48 episodes between 2018 and 2020).
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OUTSTANDING!!
Sad but true!
Steven, where can we watch your new show? Smart people want to know.
Thank you for giving us the humor, to help us cope with the reality. It is the funny and absurd that truly keeps us grounded. It numbs the effects of the caustic conditions we live under in our country. God bless you!