Conan O’Brien became emotional on Thursday night as he said goodbye to the world of late night after a 28 year career.

“It’s hard to believe, it’s hard to say, it’s our final show on TBS,” O’Brien, 58, said in his monologue at the opening of the show. “Every night, I always said, ‘Tonight we have a really great show’ and I have to tell you, I was often lying.”

O’Brien went on to assure his fans that “tonight we really do have a great show,” before cheekily adding, “And if we don’t, what are you going to do about it? I’ll be long gone.”

The host also made sure to thank the crew of his show.

“I am the beneficiary of literally hundreds and hundreds of amazing people and then I’m just the nose cone of the rocket,” gushed O’Brien before thanking everyone from the crew at TBS to his faithful on-air sidekick Andy Richter, whom he described as “one of the funniest people” he’d ever met.

“I am so grateful to all of my staff and to the fans in this country and around the world who have joined me in this really crazy and seemingly pointless pursuit to do things that are kind of stupid but have something smart in there somewhere and there’s a little tiny flicker of what is kind of magic,” O’Brien concluded. “My advice to anyone watching right now is it is not easy to do but try and do what you love with people you love, and if you can manage that, it’s the definition of heaven on earth,” concluded the quirky comic.”

The New York Post reported that O’Brien’s late night career began back in 1993, when NBC hired the young comedy writer to take over David Letterman’s gig as host of “Late Night” in 1993.  O’Brien would host this show, entitled “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” until 2009, when he took over the “The Tonight Show” for an eight-month period between 2009 and 2010. The former president of The Harvard Lampoon has hosted “Conan” from 2010-2021.

O’Brien will not be retiring from show business altogether, however, as he is set to host a weekly HBO Max series that will air next year.