Stephen Colbert had to apologize to his studio audience on Tuesday for an unexpected reason: They knew more than he expected.
The “Late Night” host spotted a report that new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been given the nickname “dishy Rishi” as he’s “considered by many to be very handsome.”
That led to a joke about the brief tenure of former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned after just 44 days in office.
“So much better than their last prime minister’s nickname: ’Hey... chief... there ya are, that’s the lady over there,” Colbert said. “We’ll never know, she wasn’t there long enough to write her name down.”
The audience reacted with a few chuckles and a groaned “ohhhh.”
“Really? Ohhhh!” he said, mimicking the reaction. “Ohhhh for the last prime minister, you can’t name her name!”
Then he challenged his audience: “On three, let’s all say her name.”
They did.
“Holy shit!” Colbert said, taking off his glasses as the audience cheered. “Please accept my apologies.”
See the moment from his Tuesday night monologue:
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