Where's Stephen Colbert now? YouTube, of course

Stephen Colbert, late of "Late Show," has a new job.

Not really. But who knows? Stranger things have happened, except maybe not quite this strange.

Last Friday, 24 hours after his last CBS edition, he hosted one more stealth episode that was subsequently posted on his new YouTube channel. (How new? It was created a couple of weeks ago. What else is on this channel? Absolutely nothing.)

The episode, named "Only in Monroe," with Colbert as host, originated from the community public access channel of Monroe, Michigan, a small city (population: 20,076) in the southeast corner of the state. Colbert took the place of the show's regular hosts, Michelle Baumann and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko Wilson (Miss America 1988) — who in turn were interviewed by the interim fake host.

The world might never have known about this guerrilla meta-joke, save for a savvy reporter for the website Latenighter.com, who picked up some meta-clues from the "Late Show" finale on Thursday. He then tuned in to Monroe's public access channel the next night at 11:30 — thus becoming quite possibly the only viewer of the channel at that hour.

One of those clues: In his Thursday monologue, Colbert said, "We were lucky enough to be here for the last 11 years. Can’t take this for granted, though technically our first show in July of 2015 was from a public access station in Monroe, Michigan, for an audience of 12 people. Show business being what it is these days, that’s probably where you’ll see me next."

As the reporter, Jed Rosenzweig, observed, "It was a joke about the shrinking economics of late night. And, as it turns out, it was also a breadcrumb," because when final guest Paul McCartney was asked to pull the Ed Sullivan Theater's master power switch in the closing seconds of the "Late Show" finale, some other switches were seen, "including ones labeled 'Applause,' 'Commercial Break' and, most tellingly, 'Only in Monroe.' "

That very first "Only in Monroe" episode 11 years ago was ostensibly a practice-run gag for the new host, who was disengaging from the host he had been before — the "Stephen Colbert" of "The Colbert Report." The single episode — think "Fernwood 2 Night"-meets-"Wayne's World," although even more rusticated — got some attention; Colbert treated guest Eminem like he was some regular Joe Schmo trying to make it in the music scene. Going viral was assured.

Cut to the very last episode on Friday. Jack White turned up as musical engineer; there was a long riff about sasquatches (Big Foot presumably a Michigan obsession); as Baumann and Wilson were interviewed by Colbert, all three inhaled helium (although nitrous oxide might have been funnier); Steve Buscemi did a PSA; Michigan-raised Michigan native Jeff Daniels demonstrated how to make a truly godawful sandwich; and Eminem cameoed as Monroe's fire marshal (Marshall Mathers, but you get the joke), who gave Daniels and Colbert his blessing to torch the entire set, which had been thrown into a dumpster.

Thanks to Latenighter, this episode got attention — some of the unwelcome kind. After people pirated the episode to post on their own YouTube Channels, CBS threatened legal action, then pulled back, reasoning that would spoil the joke.

And what of that "new job?" No, Colbert is not moving to Monroe or becoming a public access host, while that "new" YouTube channel was just part of an elaborate prank. This will probably be the first and last thing ever posted there, but do check back just in case I'm wrong.