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17th Dec 2016

Michael Stipe joins Stephen Colbert and James Franco for musical ‘tribute’ to 2016

Sums up the sh*tfest that is 2016 just about perfectly

Tony Cuddihy

Who knew Michael Stipe had such finely honed comedy chops?

The former REM lead singer joined Stephen Colbert and James Franco for a musical review of 2016, taking in everything from Harambe to Pokemon Go to D***ld T***p.

Oh, and as you probably guessed, it’s an update on the classic, ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ from the album Document.

Colbert does much of the heavy lifting here, Stipe standing by for most of the song just looking all deadpan and pissed off at what had become of his lyrics.

Eventually, though, he joins in just before Franco joins in with proceedings, and we get a badly needed dose of optimism before the credits roll.