Just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, Elon Musk sent an email to federal workers demanding a list of things they did at work that week to determine whether they’d keep their jobs. And while some within the government encouraged no response, Stephen Colbert argued that there was only one proper way to respond.
The email called for at least five bullet points from each employee, and in a post to social media shortly thereafter, Musk noted that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“Obviously, the only proper email response to that is: ‘What did I do last week? Your mom, your mom, your mom, your mom and your mom!’” Colbert joked.
That said, Colbert quickly encouraged federal workers not to actually do that, but only because Musk will be using an AI program to screen and aggregate the responses.
“So you’ll want to include keywords, like ‘Your mom synergistically; Your mom effectively; Your mom productively; Your mom efficiently; and your mom, teamwork!” he quipped. “Good for mom!”
Joking aside — though only somewhat — the late night host noted that the email was “insane,” especially considering the odd hour at which it was sent. But, Colbert figured that people would see it, because Musk marked the importance as “high” when he sent it.
“The sender? Even higher,” he joked.
You can watch Stephen Colbert’s full monologue in the video, above.
