Politics dominated late-night TV in 2017
In the first year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the role of late-night TV comedians has changed dramatically — perhaps permanently. It’s almost impossible to watch even five minutes of a show nowadays without some mention of politics.
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, no stranger to political satire, has tended to focus on the Russia scandal, even taping a week of shows in Russia last summer. Jimmy Kimmel, once a rather apolitical figure, cloaked himself in activist garb, pushing for — and against — legislation in a way that forebears such as Johnny Carson and Jay Leno wouldn’t have imagined. Even Jimmy Fallon, whose stage persona remains sunny and easygoing, often takes on politics, mostly by emphasizing the silliness of what unfolds in Washington.
The hosts didn’t abandon broader cultural concerns, either, confronting topics such as the airline industry and the #MeToo movement. Here’s your year-end “Best of Late Night,” with some of the funniest quips and most memorable moments:
Colbert and Russia Colbert has tracked the Russia investigation more assiduously than any other host. When the fired FBI director James Comey testified before Congress in June, Colbert gleefully pointed out that Comey had taken close notes on his conversations with Trump, for fear that the president might mischaracterize what had been said.
“Comey wrote everything down, and all his memos are going to be collected in a new children’s book, James and the Guilty Orange.”
Trump’s attacks on the media Trump stayed rather quiet on the topic of late-night shows, even as he became their idée fixe. But he couldn’t help attacking Colbert in May. Colbert, whose ratings ticked up when he started consistently taking on Trump about a year ago, welcomed the feud.
“Mr. Trump, there’s a lot you don’t understand, but I never thought one of those things would be show business. Don’t you know I’ve been trying for a year to get you to say my name? ‘Oh, please, don’t make me trend on Twitter again! Don’t throw me in that #briarpatch!’ ”
Trump has been less restrained about criticizing journalists and latenight hosts often used their soapbox to push back against his jabs at the news media’s credibility.
“Sen. John McCain criticized President Trump’s attack on the media yesterday and said that stifling the press is how dictators get started. Said Trump: ‘Cool, and then what do they do next?’ ” Seth Meyers said.
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah expressed dismay that Trump’s incendiary words still prove influential.
“There’s a large part of the population — you may know them as Republicans — who believe that Donald Trump is far more credible than most news outlets. So if Trump says millions of illegals voted in the election, they believe it. If Trump says Obama wiretapped him, they believe that, too. If Trump says ‘covfefe’ — look, they don’t know what it means, but (expletive), they believe it.”
Samantha Bee on Pruitt, Weinstein and more Bee’s Full Frontal airs once a week, giving her time to prepare more indepth pieces.
In October, she presented an examination of Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator and a longtime foe of envi- ronmental regulation.
“Putting Pruitt in charge of the EPA was like putting the fox in the henhouse. I’m sorry — for future viewers, foxes and hens were two animals that lived on earth before climate change rendered them extinct.”
Bee also kept up a line of attack against accused sexual harassers and abusers. Many male late-night hosts seemed flat-footed as the #MeToo movement gathered steam, but Bee took on Harvey Weinstein ferociously and never let up.
By late November, when Charlie Rose was fired by CBS, Bee’s counterparts were reacting more swiftly.
“What is it with the robes? First Cosby, then Weinstein, now Charlie Rose. Who’s next, Yoda? ‘Hmm, tense you seem. Shoulders I will rub. Reported to HR I am,’ ” Colbert said.
Kimmel’s activism No host is more emblematic of latenight TV’s evolution over the past year than Kimmel. A former exponent of tawdry humour, he once seemed unlikely to become a liberal darling. But since May — when he revealed that his newborn son suffered from a heart condition and urged Congress to protect the health-care law — his diatribes on topics from health-care bills to gun control have provided some of late night’s most-discussed moments.