USA TODAY International Edition
Do Trump jokes write themselves?
Late- night hosts ponder potential of new president
Comedy has entered a different realm with Donald Trump’s presidency, as top comedians process the possibilities of a leader who provides a daily stream of potential material.
Liberal- leaning comics, such as Bill Maher, a fierce Trump critic, also feel disappointment.
Maher says he was ready to get back to HBO’s Real Time
With Bill Maher ( Fridays, 10 ET/ PT), which returned after a two- month break on inauguration night, as both a citizen and comedian.
“I was in a very dark place, I’ll admit, right after the election. ... I thought, ‘ I’ve had a good run. Vancouver is looking awfully nice,’ ” he says. “But I started to get all the emails” — from fans who wanted to hear his biting take on the new president. “It’s nice to feel needed.”
Maher, who was sued by Trump in 2013 after offering to donate $ 5 million to charity if the businessman could prove he wasn’t the child of an orangutan ( the suit was withdrawn), is concerned about Trump’s hostility toward critics, but “I can’t be me and do my job and satisfy my audience without speaking openly and freely. … But we don’t know what this man is capable of, because he seems to only live for vengeance and adulation.”
Samantha Bee, another hardcharging Trump critic, says his surprise victory altered the focus of TBS’ Full Frontal With Saman
tha Bee ( Wednesdays, 10: 30 ET/ PT), which aimed to do more stories that weren’t related to the election after what she thought would be a Hillary Clinton win.
Bee rejects the idea that comedians automatically love having a president who provides more joke material. “There’s my job, and there’s Citizen Sam Bee, who cares deeply about the future of this nation” She says she wants to connect with viewers who don’t agree with her. “I personally get satisfaction talking to people who imagine us pitted against each other and ( finding) unexpected community. I’m not being Pollyanna here, but going forward that’s where we need to go.”
Keegan- Michael Key, who performed as Luther, the presiden- tial “anger translator” with President Obama at a White House Correspondents’ Dinner, says Trump would have a different kind of interpreter.
“He certainly doesn’t need an anger translator. … He has Twitter for that,” Key says. “It would probably be Captain Reticent.”
The potential for Trump jokes “definitely makes the show easier to do,” says Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live ( weeknights, 11: 35 ET/ PT). “When you have to explain a story before you make a joke about it, it slows you down. There’s very little detail to explain when it comes to Donald Trump.”
It can be difficult for comedians to top Trump, though, adds Kimmel, who expects some Trump commentary during acceptance speeches at the Oscars in February, which he’ll host. “He seems to be parodying himself, for the most part.”