The artist formerly known as Kanye West has been banned from the Ed Sullivan Theater, home of The Late Show, by host Stephen Colbert.

The ban is the latest backlash faced by West after he made multiple antisemitic comments on social media earlier this month. West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021, tweeted that he was “going death con 3” [sic] on Jewish people and was subsequently banned from the social media platform. Since then, several groups including Vogue and CAA have terminated their sponsorships and professional relationships with West.

“After much thought and soul-searching, I, Stephen Colbert, am banning Kanye West from the Ed Sullivan Theater. I have to. I have to. Line in the sand,” the Late Show host announced in the opening monologue for Thursday’s show, joking that his jurisdiction “extends to the northern half of Times Square.”

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“I am banning Kanye from coming north of Bubba Gump Shrimp,” he said, warning the controversial artist to stay out of Times Square.

His reasoning for extending the ban into Times Square? “He’s been creeping out the Elmos and they’ve seen a lot already,” Colbert quipped.

Colbert Explains Why Ye is Banned Despite Never Appearing on The Late Show

     CBS

Although the comedian says West’s ban “has been too long in coming,” the artist has never been a guest on The Late Show nor has he been asked to appear. Still, Colbert says he has no excuses for not banning West sooner.

“I have no excuses for why I didn’t do this before, except perhaps that he has never been on the show, we have never asked him to be on the show, and I’m not sure he’s aware that I have a show. But I had to do it now because I was afraid he would just show up at any moment because that’s what he did yesterday,” he said.

West was publicly escorted from Skechers’ California headquarters Wednesday, after arriving “unannounced and without invitation” and filming unauthorized on the premises.

“In five years, the idea of an unannounced visit from Kanye has gone from amazing to, ‘Sir, you need to leave this Skechers,’” Colbert joked. “…It gets worse—unlike with Adidas, Kanye never had a deal with Skechers. Apparently, Kanye is so desperate, he’s just driving around and searching Google Maps for ‘shoes near me.’”

Probably a good idea to cover all the bases then—for the Times Square Elmos’ sake.

Watch the full clip below: