Cheers to Colbert and Kimmel for Staying Up Late for Trump’s Speech

With newspapers sliding toward the museum of historical artifacts, there’s a case to be made for late-night television taking over the role of the once ubiquitous political cartoon.

Stephen Colbert made a literal case for that premise last night when he opened his live episode of The Late Show following the Presidential Address to Congress with an actual cartoon. Yes, it helps if you’re familiar with the animated series Animaniacs to fully appreciate the parody, but the message was simple enough:

“MAGA Maniacs” instead of Animaniacs. Much of the DOGE gallery of players was represented in a reworking of the show’s opening theme song, which featured a bevy of words that rhyme with “acs.” And also “mainy,” “brainy,” and Ukraine-y”

But the essence of the comedy on both Colbert’s live CBS show last night and Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC (West Coast-based Kimmel delayed his usual taping by a few hours so he could comment same-night on the speech) was the unapologetic political satirizing of Donald Trump, just as would be happening if we still lived in the age of influential newspaper political cartooning.

Both shows deserve credit for whipping up shows on short notice that included a passel of jokes specifically about the speech, most of which would have had to have been written on the fly just before airtime.

That takes some fast thinking, but it also raises the excitement level. Both shows had notably jazzed audiences, especially Colbert, whose audience was all but shrieking with delight during his monologue, despite apparently having been kept waiting by the president’s extended speech.

To be fair, it’s likely easier for comedy writers to compose jokes under fire with a figure like Trump, since his words, his jibes, and his promises feature a lot of outlandishness.

As usual, Trump created his own set-up lines. When he celebrates extirpating “unelected bureaucrats” the cut to Elon Musk with the joke about inserting “billionaire bureaucrats” for the unelected ones pretty much writes itself.

In fact, by far the biggest laugh lines for both hosts last night were essentially identical. When Trump complained (“whined” in the language of the hosts) that there is “absolutely nothing I can do to make the Democrats happy, make them stand, or smile or applaud; nothing I can do” the joke was sitting on a tee.

For Kimmel, the punchline was: “You can quit.” For Colbert it was “You can say ‘I resign.’” In both cases the joke scored big.

It may or may not have been a function of having little time to worry about what some might consider offensive material, but it’s likely that live or on tape, Kimmel and Colbert have the same level of virulent disdain for Trump. But live (or close to it), the jokes seem to have even more bite.

Kimmel had a mock version of the Sergeant at Arms of the House introducing Trump that included a litany of insult names like “The Notorious P.I.G. and “His Flatulency.”

Colbert called Trump “a clown,” “a boob,” and “an idiot.”

Both shows also picked up on how lame the Democratic protests came, with their magenta seating section and especially the little paddles of protest they displayed. Colbert noted that they were either protesting Trump or “bidding on an antique tea set.”

And each show found a way to work in a collection of Trump butchering names, places, and the English language in general. Kimmel brought back a long series of mispronunciations of geographical locations. Colbert had clips from the speech where Trump talked about the country of Lesotho, which he pronounced something like “Loo setoo,” a country he said no one (meaning him) had ever heard of.

Colbert said he was just relieved Trump “didn’t try to pronounce Niger.”

Is something really added by coming on the air right after the event you’re going to talk just finished? It certainly felt that way last night.

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