Part of our freight team meeting every night involves me reading how the truck breaks down according to the 10 departments at the Big Box. Most of the crew has NO idea why I often say “I have here in my hand, from the home office in Bruenigsville, PA, tonight’s Top Ten List.”

(The fact that I continue to do this despite/because it seems to amuse no one but myself is, in a sense, a second iteration of the same now outdated cultural reference.)

Colbert-and-team sprinkle in a few of Letterman’s phrases—not the big memes like the Top Ten List, but little ones, like: “legally, we can’t…” and “inform the affiliates…”. It’s an homage he can keep up his whole tenure in the space with only a few to acknowledge and smile.

I once told a coworker as a kid that my parents sometimes took me to "Tom's Diner, like the song." She didn't recognize it. "The exterior is the Seinfeld diner." Never seen it.