“Let’s dig in,” said The Late Show host Stephen Colbert at the start of his monologue, “just like that worm did to RFK Jr.’s delicious frontal lobe.”
Colbert was responding to the news on Wednesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once had a parasitic worm squirming around in his brain.
“Today, The New York Times published some newly discovered health records for the independent presidential candidate,” Colbert explained. “Turns out, back in 2010, RFK Jr. went to a doctor because he was experiencing some cognitive symptoms, like ‘memory loss and mental fogginess,’ as well as a tiny voice in his head going, ‘Let’s see, what wine pairs best with cerebellum?”
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For his impression of the worm, Colbert chose the voice of Lowly from the ’90s cartoon The Busy World of Richard Scarry, which received cheers of recognition from the audience.
It was a fitting reference, given how the monologue was preceded by a cartoon clip called, “The Amazing Adventures of Worm in Brain-Man,” which parodied the Spider-Man theme song. “He’s got a worm in brain,” the song goes, “Insanity now explained!”
Colbert’s jokes at RFK Jr’s expense come after multiple monologues throughout the past year where he’s warned viewers not to trust (or vote for) the candidate. Colbert has criticized RFK Jr. for being a vaccine conspiracy theorist and for not even having the support of his own family.
Colbert summarized more of the Times’ reporting on the story, explaining how “Bobby Jr. got a brain scan which showed an abnormality,” which turned out to be the result of “a worm that got into RFK Jr.’s brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”
Colbert concluded, “Cause of death? Starvation.”
