Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” audience booed heartily at the very mention of Elon Musk and his DOGE effort to shrink the federal government.

As jeers filled the room, Colbert snarked: “That is the sound of Tesla sales plummeting.”

Colbert said DOGE has been firing government workers so randomly that understaffed agencies are now scrambling to hire at least some of them back.

The CDC, he noted, sent emails asking 180 of those fired employees to return to their old jobs.

The email also apologized for the “disruption.”

“No!” Colbert fired back. “Disruption is when your cable goes out during a storm. This is your cable guy burning your house to the ground between the hours of noon and 6pm on Thursday.”

Colbert said Veterans Affairs is in the midst of its own mass layoffs despite the fact that a recent expansion led to its highest-ever service levels and trust in the agency reached an all-time high.

“But you know the DOGE motto,” Colbert said. “If it ain’t broke, let me try!”

See more in his Thursday night monologue: