Video: Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Samantha Bee & More 'Daily Show' Alums Reunite On Colbert

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Amidst his ongoing ratings war with Jimmy Fallon and the #FireColbert campaign (don't forget about the FCC investigation confusion!), Stephen Colbert brought in the big guns to celebrate his 20th year on late night TV: a memorable reunion episode with a bunch of his old friends from The Daily Show (that wasn't lame/purely nostalgic).

In a post-monologue sketch, Colbert staged a flashback to his last day at The Daily Show in 2005, bringing out younger versions of Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms and John Oliver (who played Steve Carell, who was otherwise not available—maybe the best part of the entire thing was seeing a photoshopped poster for The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Oliver's face on it).

"There's never gonna be another president this good for comedy," Bee said at one point about then-president Bush. "I mean, this guy does something ridiculous at least once a month. I know there's one thing for sure: there's no scenario under which I will ever say, 'God, I wish George W. Bush was president.'"

Among the best parts: Corddry's favorite comedians were Bill Cosby and Jared Fogle ("They will never let you down"); Oliver-as-Carell setting off to Hollywood to become a serious actor (with a terrible British accent); Stewart hoarding yogurts in the fridge; and the traditional pre-show prayer.

After the flashback, Colbert sat down with Stewart to catch up on all the latest news, including Trump firing Comey, Bill O'Reilly's ousting, Stewart's beard texture ("soft as an angel's ass," though that last word was bleeped out), and Colbert's recent controversy over a Trump-Putin oral sex joke.

Stewart came to Colbert's defense on that one: "The things you say, even if they’re crass or even if they are in some ways not respectful enough to the office of the presidency, we can insult, he can injure," Stewart said. "It’s the difference between insult and injury. And for the life of me I do not understand why in this country we try to hold comedians to a standard we do not hold leaders to. It’s bizarre."

Colbert also asked Stewart about whether he misses responding to big news stories in real time, as with the Comey firing: "There are nights where I find myself sort of impotently shouting into the abyss, which if you think about it, wasn’t that different from what I did on a nightly basis,” Stewart said. "The process of making the show somehow became entwined with my process, with making sense of things that I didn't understand and the two sort of merged at some level. So I miss that and the people like you, and all the great people who were around it." However, he added, "the things that I’ve gained in terms of time spent with family and things like that, I wouldn’t give up."

After that, Colbert brought out the entire crew to reminisce about their Daily Show auditions, trade inside jokes, tell backstage stories (Colbert offered a priceless anecdote about running from the Klan during a bit), play clips of early field pieces from each of them, and make fun of Stewart's enormous suits. It really was like "a group of students coming back to see Mr. Holland," as Stewart said at one point.

There was also a short cold open in which Stewart and Colbert were interns working for Trevor Noah (who, like Trump, also has his own Coke button).

During his monologue, Colbert talked about the then-breaking news that Trump had fired FBI Director James Comey, and all things Trump/Russia/Flynn. "That shows no gratitude at all. I mean, did Trump forget about the Hillary emails that Comey talked about?" Colbert asked. Impersonating Trump, he added, "Thanks for the presidency, Jimmy. Don't let the door hit ya where the Electoral College split ya."

Here are a few more fun tweets from the night:

And Carell popped up on Twitter as well: