Stephen Colbert said during his monologue on Monday that he’s a huge, huge fan of Taylor Swift. Is he? Maybe, but he wasn’t being serious, instead mocking himself as perhaps a little out of touch when he joked, “I am what you call a ‘Swiffer.’”
Obviously, Swifties don’t refer to themselves by the name of a popular cleaning appliance. But we laughed.
The gag came during the start of his monologue, when the CBS host brought up “the story that is gripping the nation — really all nations,” which turned out to be the shoutout Swift gave to her current boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs’ player Travis Kelce, during a concert in Argentina.
“On Saturday, Travis Kelce was spotted with Taylor Swift in Argentina during the Chiefs’ ‘bye-bye’ week,” Colbert said, referring to the term for a week during the regular football season when a team isn’t scheduled to play. “This is exciting to me because I love Taylor. I am what you call a ‘Swiffer.’”
Colbert then compounded his error, adding, “I would go so far as to call myself a Wet Jet.”
“Anyway, Trav-Trav was down there to see Tay-Tay’s Tour-Tour,” Colbert continued, “and it was extra-special because during the concert, Taylor changed the lyrics to one of her songs in a nod to Travis Kelce.”
For those who haven’t seen the clip, Swift changed the lyrics of her song “Karma” so that she sang, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.”
“Actually, it’s a little embarrassing. She got that one wrong. Karma is not the guy on the Chiefs. Kelce is the guy,” Colbert joked. “Here’s a tip, Taylor: Their names are on the back of shirts.”
“Of course this is not the first time a pop icon changed to honor an NS boyfriend,” Colbert added, at which point he cued up a clip of Celine Dion singing her Oscar-winning song from “Titanic” with lyrics changed to refer to former NFL star Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski.
Watch the whole thing here right now:
