Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon touched on the suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ in the Thursday night episodes of their own late-night shows, while protesters took to the streets in front of ABC.
The Associated Press
A day after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was indefinitely suspended on ABC following threats from Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair, American television’s remaining active late-night talk shows put on a display of deference to the President of the United States – with a wink.
The writing staffs of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers all had roughly same comedic idea having their hosts pretend that they were capitulating or subject to government censorship in one way or another.
The Daily Show was first out of the gates Thursday night – with a special edition that was introduced as “the all new government-approved Daily Show with your patriotically obedient host Jon Stewart.”
Stewart, who normally hosts the show on Mondays, made a special appearance where he pretended to be highly nervous as if a North Korean-style firing squad was waiting in the wings for him to make a joke that was not politically correct in the eyes of Trump’s MAGA movement.
“If you felt a little off the past couple days, it’s probably because Our Great Father has not been home – for Father has been gracing England with his legendary warmth and radiance,” Stewart said, in his introduction to a recap of Trump’s recent trip abroad.
“The perfectly tinted Trump dazzled his hosts at dinner with a demonstration of unmatched oratory skill,” he said, before showing a clip of the President giving a toast that sounded like a Grade 4 report on great English writers.
In a similar vein, Jimmy Fallon – who Trump implored NBC to cancel next in a social-media post this week – came out on The Tonight Show saying that though many people were worried in the wake of Kimmel’s cancellation that he would start to self-censor, he intended to cover the President’s trip to Britain just like he normally would.
But as Fallon began to monologue about Trump’s trip, his voice kept being drowned out by a booming announcer’s voice every time he veered somewhere critical of Trump.
“Well, guys, President Trump just wrapped up his three-day trip to the U.K. and he LOOKED INCREDIBLY HANDSOME,” he said.
“As always, his tie was EXACTLY THE RIGHT LENGTH and his face looked LIKE A COLOUR THAT EXISTS IN NATURE and his hair looked BETTER THAN CONRAD’S FROM THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY.”
As for Seth Meyers – whose cancellation by NBC was also encouraged by Trump in a social-media post this week – he started off his commentary for the evening by insisting he had always admired and respected Trump.
“I’ve always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great President, an even better golfer – and if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him that’s just AI,” he said.
“I’m told there’s some clips of me on the Internet making jokes about him from a few years back; those are obviously deepfakes.”
On The Late Show, Colbert – who already has run afoul of Trump and whose show will end its run in May – used the occasion of Kimmel’s cancellation to bring back his right-wing alter ego Stephen Colbert from his old Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, which originally ran from 2005 to 2014, to be the show’s new ombudsman and provide balance.
The conservative character Colbert refuted the real Colbert’s opening monologue lambasting Trump for his campaign against media critics.
“The Constitution coddlers out there argue that Americans are born with certain god-given rights like life and liberty and, of course, the pursuit of happiness,” Colbert said, in the reactionary role. “But what about the pursuit of Donald Trump’s happiness?”
Here are some of the late night shows’ monologue excerpts and jokes from Thursday night about the growing threats to freedom of speech in the United States.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Colbert’s team jumped out of the gates first on Thursday by posting an animated video to YouTube in which a MAGA-hatted version of Lumière, the anthropomorphic candelabra from Beauty and the Beast, sang a parody of Be Our Guest called Shut Your Trap as a mouthpiece for ABC’s parent company Disney.
“Shut your trap, shut your trap / We are warning you to cut the crap / Our dear leader’s / skin is thinner / than a sheet of plastic wrap.”
Colbert’s late lines in his monologue about the Kimmel affair included: “This whole thing is the latest and baldest action in a long campaign against media critics. Trump has personally sued ABC, CBS, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Des Moines Register and his bathroom scale.”
The Daily Show
Stewart, in his show’s wonderfully wonky way, completely committed to the bit of being a cowed TV host in an authoritarian country for 20-odd minutes.
The Daily Show played a clip of Trump responding to a British journalist’s question about Kimmel being pulled off the air and free speech – to which the President responded that Kimmel was “not a talented person.”
Comrade Stewart defended the President to this reporter with his tongue firmly planted in cheek.
“You may call it free speech in jolly old England. But in America, we have a little something called the First Amendment,” he said.
Late Night with Seth Meyers
After A Closer Look segment where Meyers explored Trump’s hypocrisy on free speech and showed clips of pundits arguing that the United States was on its way to becoming an oppressive autocracy in the style of Russia or Hungary, Meyers took a moment to be heartfelt. Sort of.
“It is a privilege and an honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend – in the same way it is a privilege and honour to do this show every night,“ he said.
“I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we’re going to keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it with enthusiasm and integrity.”
This was followed by a loud sound effect of a fart.