Stephen Colbert lost 14lbs after his appendix ruptured.
The 59-year-old comedian has returned to The Late Show after three weeks recovering from abdominal surgery and joked that having appendicitis is the "new Ozempic" due to his rapid weight loss since going under the knife.
After thanking his doctors, family, and well-wishers, he said on the show on Monday (December 11): "You might be surprised that I'd like to thank my appendix, because you giving me blood poisoning helped me lose 14 lbs.
"Ladies and gentleman, you heard it here first. Appendicitis is the new Ozempic."
Despite feeling ill, Stephen had made it through the taping of two episodes of the show before agreeing to go to hospital, where doctors discovered the organ had already ruptured, though they don't know why.
He quipped: "We get to the hospital, they scanned me, my appendix had already burst. They said when they opened me up it was like they'd shot John Wick 5 down there."
"They had to take my appendix out and clean me up. I don't want to go into too much detail but they basically go in with a power washer and a sharps bag," he explained. "They don't know why appendix go bad because they don't know why they go good, they have no idea what it does except at some point turns to the pancreas and goes, 'I bet I could kill this guy'."
The presenter joked it proved he was both "brave" and an "idiot" to have gone through with the recording while feeling ill.
He said: "It was a two-show night people could have an extra day off for the holidays, we'd been out five months from the strikes and I'd missed a week from Covid and most importantly, because I am an idiot , I said, 'Let's just do the show'. But it also proves that I'm kind of brave.
"The pain was manageable, it only hurt when I moved... and when I didn't. I held it together for two monologues and two second acts, and a long interview with Bradley Cooper because there is no pain when you're lost in those baby blue but the moment I was not prepared for — I love this man — it was the cooking segment I did with Jose Andres because at the end he spontaneously grabbed me to dance.
"Keep in mind, I don't want to get too technical here — I was dying," he added. "Also to be completely clear, I didn't tell Bradley or Jose, no one had any idea how I was feeling."