Stephen Colbert Brutally Trolls Pete Hegseth's Embarrassing 'Pulp Fiction' Prayer — As Top Advisor Scrambles to Defend War Sec's Fake Bible Quote Blunder
Stephen Colbert had fun at Pete Hegseth's 'Pulp Fiction Prayer' debacle.
April 17 2026, Published 1:45 p.m. ET
Pete Hegseth ran into some pulp friction from talk show host Stephen Colbert, RadarOnline.com can reveal, after the Secretary of Defense embarrassed himself by quoting a mostly made-up monologue from Pulp Fiction as an actual prayer.
The canceled The Late Show host had his own fun with the snafu, as Hegseth's top advisors scurried into damage control.
Stephen Colbert Condones Pete Hegseth
Colbert gave his own prayer on Hegseth's behalf.
At a worship service at the Pentagon on Wednesday, April 15, Hegseth shared what he thought was a Bible prayer delivered moments before the harrowing rescue operation of two airmen shot down over Iran.
Hegseth told a crowd, "They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17, before asking attendees to "pray with me, please."
The 45-year-old then launched into a speech that was less biblical and more Tarantino-esque, specifically, a slightly altered version of Samuel L. Jackson's famous Pulp Fiction speech before he blows a guy's head off, which Colbert was more than happy to point out.
"Hegseth quoting from the gospel of Quentin Tarantino!" the late-night host, 61, raged. "If you're not familiar with that gospel, it's like the regular Bible, but Tarantino's Jesus says the N-word a lot."
He then turned mock-serious, "Despite all this, I want Hegseth to succeed. He's the Secretary of Defense. If he succeeds, that means America succeeds. So, please join me in prayer."
Colbert then continued his mocking by uttering a "prayer" made up entirely of famous movie quotes: "God, I’m talking to you. You talking to me? Are you talking to me? War is like a box of chocolates. I am tired of these motherf---ing sins on my motherf---ing soul!"
He ended with a nod to Babe, "That'll do, God. That'll do."
Like a Prayer
Samuel L. Jackson uttered the epic monologue in the movie, 'Pulp Fiction.'
As Radar reported, at Wednesday's prayer service, Hegseth recited: "The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children.
"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen."
The actual Ezekiel 25:17 verse simply reads: "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."
The rest was all made up for the movie, and Colbert couldn't resist rubbing that in the secretary's face.
Damage Control
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Hegseth's team tried to spin the snafu.
Hegseth's team immediately went into a spin cycle, as Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell justified that the defense secretary read from a "custom prayer."
"Secretary Hegseth on Wednesday shared a custom prayer, referenced as the CSAR prayer, used by the brave warfighters of Sandy-1 who led the daylight rescue mission of Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran, which was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction," Parnell, 44, wrote in a statement on X.
"However, both the CSAR prayer and the dialogue in Pulp Fiction were reflections of verse 25:17, as Secretary Hegseth clearly said in his remarks at the prayer service.
“Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality."
