As extreme heat takes hold across the U.S., Stephen Colbert managed to find some humor in it, throwing out barbs for each side of the nation’s coasts during his Wednesday night “The Late Show” monologue.
“Today in New York City, temperatures hit a high of 96 of degrees, what meteorologists call hotter than the devil’s grundle,” Colbert said, before wondering aloud, “Can I say ‘grundle’ on CBS? I don’t know if I can.”
He certainly did say that word, and then went on to show a photo of a hair-free muppet in his next joke.
“It is so hot in the city, Time’s Square had a naked cowboy and a shaved Elmo,” the late night funnyman quipped, flashing a photo onscreen of the altered Sesame Street character, which you can see in the video above.
Since the weather has been one of the biggest stories in the nation, the host had plenty of material to pull from to make jokes about the West Coast.
“Out West, the extreme heat comes with a side of drought,” he began. “California has imposed water restrictions this year, including one that limits outdoor watering to only one day a week. It’s gotten so bad, Disneyland had to change the name of Splash Mountain to ‘Dusty Gulch.’”
With California having to take drought conditions very, very seriously, there was also some humor for the comedian in the city’s use of water police.
“In Los Angeles, in order to curb water usage, water police are going door to door. That’s gotta be tense. Cops, banging at your door, suddenly you’re scrambling to flush all of your water down the toilet,” he said to laughs.
“Water police are walking around looking for sidewalk puddles — a potential sign of misused water. Unlike New York City, where sidewalk puddles are a definite sign of mystery urine. Don’t investigate,” he added.
