
Donald Trump is back and once again he’s putting the mono in late-night monologues—as in monomania.
With maybe an asterisk.
If there was ever a day when the news was flooded to Noah levels of deluge with the latest developments in Trump-istan, it had to be Monday, following a week—and a weekend—marked by a heavens-splitting torrent of head-spinning news:
From the confirmation of two-fisted militarist and G&T imbibing (according to multiple witnesses) Pete Hegseth; to the firing of a group who might have been rounded up to stand in Trump’s way, the Inspector General posse; to more bully-pulpiting (without the pulpit) against other sovereign nations (Colombia, it’s your turn); to made-for-TV raids on migrant families starring (of all people) Dr. Phil, the Trump outrage machine was pumping at full capacity.
And in each of their monologues, the late-night hosts took full aim at skewering the oversaturation of Trump excesses.
With one notable exception.
On NBC’s Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon delivered an entire monologue—more than ten minutes of jokes— without a single reference to any of the Trump-centric headlines, nor even a single mention of the name Donald Trump.
Has that even happened before in the Trump-news era? Let the late-night archive-ologists examine that question. But it was certainly a rarity. And the fact that it took place on a night overrun with easy Trump joke set-ups made the absence even louder.
When you have an on-camera news interview with a rare-right-wing actor like Mel Gibson, and he is rejoicing at Trump’s reinstatement by saying: “It’s like Daddy arrived, and he’s taking his belt off,” it might seem like monologue-writing 101 to come up with a follow-up joke to that. As multiple hosts did Monday night.
The Tonight Show, however, didn’t touch it.
As for the threat to tariff imports from Colombia, you could also see the Don Jr. sniffing impressions coming from outer space.
Not on The Tonight Show.
Instead, Jimmy Fallon—buoyant and upbeat as always—delivered a heavy quotient of Super Bowl jokes, a music riff on that topic, and a mini-set about DeepSeek and the A.I. battle for global control. The closest he came to a Trump-ish joke was really a Super Bowl joke, when he cited the exorbitant price of tickets and said, “Fans are asking themselves, ‘Should I buy two Super Bowl tickets or a dozen eggs?’”
Then on Tuesday night, when other late-night shows were taking measure of an earth-shaking White House plan to pause payments to everything from school lunches to veteran’s benefits, again The Tonight Show mostly took a pass. Fallon’s monologue opened with more Super Bowl-related material, including a sketch featuring a referee biased toward the Chiefs because Patrick Mahomes is so cute.
Then came two Trump-oriented jokes, neither about the big controversies of the past few days. One marked Google’s suck-up to Trump’s plan by changing its maps to read “Gulf of America.”
The other was about Trump’s wanting to repaint Air Force One from baby blue to “power” blue and how this focus on names and paint colors could lead to people wondering if he is President or pregnant.
Neither joke would qualify as having a lot of bite.
Is it too soon to wonder if The Tonight Show is tip-toeing toward becoming a bit of a safe haven for the MAGA crowd?
It was just a week ago at the top of his show on Inauguration Day that Fallon’s first reference to Trump being sworn in attracted a reaction as alien in modern-day late night as multiple guests on the couch at the same time: the audience began, as expected, with boos for Trump, but they were matched or exceeded within seconds by claps and cheers.
Trump fans were in the live audience at a late-night show not on the Fox News Channel. And they felt emboldened to let their freak flag fly.
Does this presage some kind of infiltration from the hard-right crowd into the traditional left-of-center base for late-night comedy?
Or is it more a sign that, at Fallon’s Tonight Show at least, there’s a hint of concern about audiences suffering from the DT’s? (From overdosing on Donald Trump.)
It might also be tied to the place The Tonight Show maintains in late night. It’s the foundation, the institution. For most of the decades since Johnny Carson stepped down as host, The Tonight Show was the most conservative of the late-night shows, though that did not mean anything like the steep rightward tilt Trump has imposed.
Jay Leno managed to maintain the show’s ratings supremacy by mostly grounding it in the center of public opinion, much as Carson had.
When NBC chose Leno over David Letterman as Carson’s successor, Leno was seen as the more “mainstream,” less precedent-shattering comic talent. Through much of Jay’s run, he was embraced by viewers who felt alienated from what they perceived as more progressive comedy on Letterman, and certainly on The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Leno was seen as the more conventional, poke-at-all-sides comic in conservative circles. That was another reason NBC cut Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show run short. Management wanted a more mainstream act.
Jimmy Fallon was already the least political of the current late-night hosts. He has certainly tweaked Trump, and even does one of the better Trump impressions. But his jokes were never as hard-edged and overtly hostile to Trump as those being pumped out by Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Kimmel.
Still, Trump has gone after Fallon as well as those others in his retribution assaults on late night calling Fallon, in a political rally rant in September, “not very funny” and declaring, “The Tonight Show is dying.”
But that was before the election. The country has signed on for four more years of Trump, which presumably means four more years of pitched battling in monologues on the late-night stages.
With audiences dwindling all over the television landscape, a lean toward rapprochement with the 77 million+ voters who reinstalled Trump might look like sound strategy, especially if politically-charged comedy was already less common on your show.
What’s certain is, if Fallon’s Tonight Show earnestly tries to lean less on Trump for monologue material, it will be challenged. Often.
Like when Trump announces he is renaming Canada “Colder America.”
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Bill, let me give you another perspective. I think this is great. I don’t want to hear Trump jokes at night and it doesn’t mean I’m MAGA. I heard them for 4 years, and they continued through Biden’s presidency, laughing at Trump. Turns out, it wasn’t so funny. I love Jimmy Kimmel and Colbert, but I’ve stopped watching, period. I just don’t want to hear Trump jokes. I’d rather watch something else. A Trump free show monologue? Again, I’m all for it. I never thought monologue’s were Fallon’s strong suit, but I’m willing to give it a try.
wow, it is nice to see I am not alone. I am no where near Maga and I am tired of it too.
It is not just the MAGA crowd who is tired of the over saturation of Trump jokes. I have never voted and would never vote for Trump. I voted for Harris. I only voted for a Republican once in my entire voting life (I am 58) . I love Kimmel, Colbert, Fallon, etc but I am sick to death with all the jokes about only Trump. One or two fine, but especially Colbert borders on or goes over on anxiety and dare I criticize a comedian that I love so much…he is becoming sanctimonious and not funny. Be a comedian or be a politician. But if you are going to be a politician then leave tv and run for office. I do not need to get my real news from a late-night show. It is not informed enough or nuanced enough for that. Please stop already and please quit doing what they say they dislike which is prejudging, without knowing or talking to people to know what they really think or who they are. I used to watch John Oliver too, and though I really like him I don’t watch him anymore, because it poses as news analysis, but it is not. These comedians get it wrong, they do not know more than trained analysts who examine and comment on politics for a living. And no, I am not talking about the talking heads who yell at each other on pretend news programs. I am talking about people like David Green, Sarah Isgur and Mo Elleithee from Left, Right and Center. I listen to news from thoughtful, intelligent and informed commentators from the spectrum of politics, so that I can understand other people’s opinion and better inform myself. I go to the late-night shows to get away from it all and laugh. I don’t mind laughing at politics too. But just laughing at a certain group of people’s politics over and over gets old. There is plenty to laugh at across the spectrum. For example, Bill Maher is a comedian that dishes it out to everyone who deserves roasting across the political spectrum. Perhaps, Stephen Colbert or John Oliver could quit assuming they are right about everything and try to laugh at themselves, too. That would be so refreshing at this point.