During a panel discussion on CNN’s Newsnight with Abby Phillip, political commentator Scott Jennings took aim at the state of late-night comedy for the next four years. Speaking about the gang of dour, unfunny regime comics that litter the TV landscape, Jennings called them out for abandoning their role as comedians and using their platforms as political activists instead. He went after Jimmy Kimmel for his emotional breakdown on air and questioned the sustainability of this one-sided political activism for four more years.
The panel also featured commentator Touré, who is mostly remembered for falling for a meme about a submerged NYC subway station. As Jennings highlighted, the Regime comics had a hard time processing the election results, resulting in them using their monologues to lecture and impose their narrative rather than entertain.
Jennings was not wrong about the one-sidedness of late-night comedy. As our colleague Alex Christy exposed, the Regime comics struggled to process the election results, with many of them resorting to crying and apocalyptic predictions. Kimmel, for instance, described it as a terrible night for everyone, regardless of who they voted for.
Stephen Colbert, on his show, called Trump a monstrous child surrounded by cowards and grifters. Seth Myers also joined in, saying that it was hard to see a bright side and that they were stepping into uncharted territory. However, these were the same comedians who relentlessly mocked Trump during his first term, with Myers and Obama even roasting him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, potentially setting the stage for his presidency.
Moreover, a study of the presidential campaign showed that 98% of the Regime comics’ jokes were about Donald Trump, with another showing that they joked about Trump and Republican candidates almost seven times more than they did about Joe Biden and other Democrats.
This disproportionate mockery of one side only highlights the political bias of these late-night comics, and it’s time for them to go back to making comedy comedy again. The data clearly show that they have lost their way and become nothing more than political mouthpieces.
But as we prepare for another four years, one can’t help but wonder if these comics will ever turn the corner and strike a balance with their jokes. We can only hope that they will start to include both sides of the political spectrum and focus on making people laugh, rather than pushing a political agenda.