After being on vacation for the past few weeks, Stephen Colbert returned to The Late Show on Tuesday night where he promptly went to town on the latest right-wing fad dominating social media: Ivermectin. The horse drug’s manufacturer, Merck, and medical experts have been clear that the drug does not “cure” or treat COVID-19.
So if doctors aren’t prescribing ivermectin, where are right wingers and Joe Rogan devotees getting it? The livestock store. No, really. Folks have been buying up ivermectin horse paste, and Colbert immediately tackled the subject with a Mister Ed parody called “Doctor Ed.” In the short cold open, Doctor Ed walks into the middle of a surgery being performed and recommends ivermectin for everything. Except a broken leg, where he recommends a shotgun.
More bitingly, the parody video ends with a twist on the Mister Ed theme song: “A horse is a horse, of course, of course/don’t trust it as a medical source/that is of course unless the horse/is the famous Doctor Ed.”
Following the Mister Ed parody, Colbert kept the jabs coming as he mocked people complaining about the taste of the horse drug. “Ivermectin is ineffective against COVID, and when used incorrectly, it can kill you. Worst of all, it tastes yucky,” Colbert quipped. Via HuffPost:
“The terrible taste led one Facebook user to ask, ‘Can I squeeze the paste into my anus instead of my mouth?’” Colbert noted, then answered the question: “Last time I checked, this was America. You bet you can!”
In fact, he added, “It says right on the label: for a horse’s ass.”
Not to beat a dead horse here, but for the record, don’t ingest livestock medicine. It’s not safe, Willllburrr.
