Stephen Colbert turned his satirical spotlight on the British monarchy’s latest implosion Thursday night, dubbing the freshly dethroned Prince Andrew the “pervert formerly known as prince” in a blistering Late Show monologue that left audiences howling and palace watchers wincing. The CBS host’s zinger, delivered amid a whirlwind takedown of global absurdities from Donald Trump’s Asia jaunt to viral teen slang, zeroed in on Andrew’s dramatic title stripping – a move triggered by a “controversial email” that Colbert quipped was “the royal straw that broke the peasant’s back.”
The segment, part of Colbert’s signature news roundup, wove the royal scandal into a tapestry of 2025’s wild headlines, but Andrew’s downfall stole the show. “Ex-Prince Andrew – the guy who used to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein, who’s not Donald Trump – has been stripped of his royal title,” Colbert deadpanned, pausing for the crowd’s eruption before landing the punch: “His new title will be ‘pervert formerly known as prince.'” He capped it with a philosophical kicker: “Maybe men shouldn’t have friends.” The line, riffing on the Purple One’s iconic nomenclature, instantly trended on X, spawning memes of Andrew Photoshopped into velvet Prince regalia amid Epstein’s shadowy orbit.
Colbert’s barbs arrived hot on the heels of Buckingham Palace’s October bombshell: King Charles III’s invocation of Letters Patent to revoke Andrew’s HRH styling, military honors, and princely dignity, rebranding the 65-year-old as plain “Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.” The demotion, the first of its kind since the 18th century, stems from resurfaced emails unearthed from Epstein’s estate – including Andrew’s panicked 2011 pleas to the late financier: “I can’t take any more of this” – amid U.S. congressional demands for his testimony on sex-trafficking allegations. Andrew, holed up at Royal Lodge despite a looming eviction deadline, has denied all wrongdoing, settling a 2022 civil suit with accuser Virginia Giuffre for £12 million without admission of liability.
The Late Show host didn’t let the scandal breathe alone; he bookended it with jabs at Trump’s Asia tour, where the president-elect schmoozed Xi Jinping over tariffs, claiming a “12 out of 10” victory despite a status-quo stalemate. “Not confident we’re gonna win this one,” Colbert snarked, splicing in awkward footage of the duo’s forced grins. He pivoted to Kash Patel’s “stunning ethical violation” – the FBI director jetting to a Hulk Hogan-backed wrestling match with his 26-year-old girlfriend – with a wry: “Does not sound like the most romantic date.” Even Dictionary.com’s crowning of teen slang “6-7” (code for “cool” or “mid”) as 2025’s word of the year drew fire: “The word of the year has to be a word,” Colbert groaned, likening it to Playboy’s hypothetical “Playmate of the Year: 8.”
Late-night peers piled on the royal roast. Jimmy Kimmel, on ABC, quipped about Republican infighting amid a month-long government shutdown: “It feels like Jurassic Park when the velociraptors turn on the guys running the place,” targeting Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “chugged Kool-Aid” rage. Seth Meyers, over on NBC, skewered Trump’s handshake gaffes abroad: “No one in American history has been worse at handshakes than Donald Trump,” and dismissed his labeling of Chuck Schumer’s critiques as “almost treasonous” with: “The real treason is when your detractors get sassy.” Kimmel also touched on Andrew tangentially, mocking Trump’s White House Halloween bash where kids scored “Be Best” postcards alongside candy: “I didn’t know Be Best was still a thing.”
Colbert’s Andrew segment, clocking in at two minutes amid a 12-minute opener, underscored his knack for blending transatlantic tea with American farce. “Many signs that America has hit a bit of a rough patch,” he lamented earlier, “but this week the country hit rock bottom” – a nod to broader woes like nuclear saber-rattling (Kimmel’s take: “Next time he is gonna take it by force”) and consumer gloom. The monologue, taped hours before air amid New York’s crisp fall bite, drew 3.2 million viewers – a bump from last week’s 2.9 million, per Nielsen – buoyed by the royal zing’s shareability.
Social fallout was swift and split. #PervertFormerlyKnown trended stateside, with Swifties and royal drama addicts churning out edits of Andrew’s infamous 2019 Newsnight sweat denial synced to Prince’s “Purple Rain.” One viral X post amassed 200,000 likes: “Colbert just knighted Andrew with the burn of the century. YNWA, Your Royal Pervertness.” MAGA corners fired back, accusing Colbert of “anti-royalist bias” in a Trump-adjacent echo chamber, while UK fans on TikTok hailed it as “the transatlantic takedown we needed post-title-strip.”
For Colbert, 61 and a decade into The Late Show, the bit fits his post-2024 election pivot: sharper edges on scandals, from Epstein’s lingering shadow to Trump’s tariff tango. Royal experts like Vanity Fair‘s Katie Nicholl praised the levity: “In a week of Windsor wreckage, Colbert’s wit reminds us scandal’s absurdity transcends oceans.” As Andrew faces congressional subpoenas and a Frogmore Cottage “mercy” offer, Colbert’s closer – “Maybe men shouldn’t have friends” – lingers like a velvet-robed warning: In the court of public opinion, some titles are forever tarnished.
