After nine years and 1,447 episodes, Stephen Colbert retired his over-the-top pundit character Thursday as "The Colbert Report" aired one last time on Comedy Central, Today reported. The comedian went out "with a bang," the show judged, as his last episode finished with "dozens of stars singing 'We'll Meet Again.'"

"I did something much harder than change the world," Colbert told his viewers. "Folks, I 'samed' the world." In 2005, when his parody began, "I promised you a revolution, and I delivered: Because, technically, one revolution is 360 degrees right back to where we were."

Colbert is scheduled to take over CBS' "Late Show" in September 2015 when David Letterman, who has hosted the program since 1993, is set to step down. Colbert will continue to host the show from New York.

On the last night of the "Report," the special guest, meanwhile, was none other than the "Grim Reaper," and "many assumed the smug, narcissistic, fact-phobic pundit would die (in character)" and Colbert would "permanently off his big-mouth political alter ego," the Boston Globe wrote.

But in one of his typical stunts, Colbert accidentally shot the Reaper with his favorite handgun instead. "I just killed death," he celebrated. "That means I am immortal." "Does that also mean we could see Colbert's "Stephen Colbert" (character) on CBS in the future?" the Boston Globe wondered. That is certainly a possibility, the newspaper judged.

For the grand "We'll Meet Again" finale, Colbert assembled an impressive cast of personalities: Jon Stewart, Willie Nelson, Tom Brokaw, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Cranston, Big Bird, Jeff Daniels, Katie Couric, Ken Burns, Charlie Rose, James Franco, Michael Stipe, Barry Manilow, Christiane Amanpour, Andy Cohen, and George Lucas all joined in to serenade the host, USA Today detailed.

"The Colbert Report" premiered on Oct. 17, 2005, as a spinoff of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Colbert's character, in his own words a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot," is a caricature of televised political pundits. The show has been the recipient of Primetime Emmy and Peabody awards, among others.