Stephen Colbert opened The Late Show last night with "huge news" that Australia had voted overwhelmingly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage to much applause from his studio audience in America.
"Very exciting news, very exciting," said Colbert. "Finally! Finally Australian lesbians have the right to say those sacred words 'That's not a wife, this is a wife!'."
Colbert elicited much mirth from the studio audience, who were all too familiar with the famous Crocodile Dundee quote "that's not a knife. That's a knife!"
But surprisingly it wasn't the only crocodile reference to the same-sex marriage vote.
Australian federal MP and gay marriage opponent Bob Katter, or in Colbert's words the "world's worst Pharrell impersonator" (due to his signature hat), was quickly mocked for his response to the vote.
Rather than linger on the result, Katter told local journalists: "Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom as far as I'm concerned."
Yet it was his sudden diversion away from worrying about people's "sexual proclivities" to his greater concern about northern Queenslanders being taken by crocodiles "every three months" that triggered this response from Colbert: "Wow! That was an abrupt left-turn right there."
"I can't wait to hear Katter weigh in on gay adoptions," the TV host went on. "'I mean people are entitled to the joy and laughter of children, I say live and let live but who cares because in the meantime every five minutes gangs of kangaroos and dingoes are chewing your grandpas' face off'."
Australia's same sex marriage vote made international headlines and came under fire from fellow late-night TV host John Oliver, who called it a "waste of money".
The British comedian, who hosts US show Last Week Tonight, slammed the decision by Malcolm Turnbull's government to spend $122 million on the non-binding vote, when polls already showed two-thirds of the population support marriage equality.
"[It's] the weirdest waste of Australian money since every Baz Luhrmann movie ever made," he joked to viewers on October 30.
"... This has been a dispiriting, and ultimately pointless process," he added.
Last Week Tonight concluded for the season on November 13, two days before the vote was known. Oliver has yet to respond to the result.
- with Rob Moran
