While the nation’s capitol reeled on Monday from former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s exit, few took the news harder than Stephen Colbert.
“I come to you tonight a broken man,” Colbert told the audience on his “Late Show” Monday evening. “Because just this afternoon I was shocked by this breaking ‘nooch.’”
The news, or “nooch,” as Colbert called it, was of course the departure of Scaramucci from his White House post after just 10 days on the job.
“He said he was going to fire everybody and I’ve got to admit he delivered! That is thorough,” Colbert said.
The CBS host went on to make sure his audience knew just how short Scaramucci’s stay in the Trump administration had been.
“The Mooch lasted as communications director for only 10 days! Ten!” he said. “That’s not even a whole pay period! His going away party can serve what’s left of his welcome cake.”
Colbert even threw Scaramucci a fake going away party with decorations that looked repurposed from a welcome affair.
Other late night hosts made similar jokes, but Colbert seemed particularly devastated. When Scaramucci was named to his post days earlier, Colbert celebrated his arrival by singing a version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with lyrics like “Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?”
But now he moved onto the “sad part” of the song. This time, he changed the lyrics to “Mama, I just got canned. Barely got to the White House, said some dumb stuff now I’m out. Mama, my job had just begun, and now I’ve gone and thrown it all away.”
Before his show Monday night, Colbert tweeted: “Scaramucci, We hardly knewcci.”
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Write to Abigail Abrams at abigail.abrams@time.com