The scenes of hostile showdowns in Los Angeles between law enforcement and protesters of ICE’s arrests of suspected illegal immigrants could be counted on to consume the attention of late-night writers and hosts Monday night.
For the most part they did, ratcheting up the already smoking hot enmity between most of the late-night world and the Trump Administration, though the hosts hardly needed new provocation.
In this case, only one show was actually taped in LA last night (Jimmy Kimmel was dark) and fittingly it was the best of all of them at capturing the feeling of anger, disgust and unhappiness with the developments in the streets downtown.
That show was After Midnight, the (very) soon to depart 12:35am show on CBS, which has not embraced much topical comedy until late in its production life.
Ignoring news that close to home clearly was not on the table.
Instead, the host, Taylor Tomlinson, went directly at the grim task that faced her. “I just don’t know to make it funny,” she said. “I don’t think any of it is funny.”
She said it in the cadence of a monologue, so the audience had a pretty good idea there’d be jokes to come. But she sounded more like Kimmel and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers than ever before.
“Late-night shows aren’t funny anymore anyway. We’re just the news now,” Tomlinson said. “I don’t know. I just have a hard time talking about any of this stuff because I don’t think it’s funny. I can’t imagine being somebody whose mom or dad or brother or sister got abducted by ICE and then you turn on TV and it’s just some dumb bitch in a ponytail saying: ‘Trump’s just being silly.’ I don’t know how to make it funny. It’s not funny.”
That didn’t mean there weren’t some areas of absurdity to mock, which Tomlinson touched on, as did most of her late-night colleagues.
There was the whole idea of rounding up immigrants in a Home Depot parking lot. “How are day laborers at Home Depot possibly hurting Americans?” Tomlinson said. Have you gone to Home Depot? Literally all they do is offer to help.”
Jon Stewart’s version: “Home Depot? ICE, if you’re looking for help in arresting people, you know those guys are looking for work.”
Colbert suggested ICE’s next target would be “Bob’s Big Boy.”
Tomlinson hailed California Governor Gavin Newsom for citing the illegality of the federal government sending in the National Guard without first consulting the state authorities. “Yes! Yet another lawsuit against Trump because he didn’t ask for consent.”
So, she did find a way to make it funny.
And she didn’t even have to display a scary picture of Stephen Miller to do it.
Miller is a contender for most reviled figure in late-night history. Dan Quayle was only mocked for misspelling potato. Miller is being compared to Nosferatu and the killer in a slasher movie. (As in, a monster.)
Meyers took a quick shot at him.
But the biggest chunk of Miller eviscerating came on The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart doing an extended joke run about him, working the word “deport” into Miller’s sex life, and Jordan Klepper’s correspondent report ending with twin monster Millers nibbling at his skin (they later attacked Stewart.)
Miller may want to have a timer put on his TV that goes to a test pattern starting at 11.
He had one safe haven last night. Jimmy Fallon steered clear of the LA situation entirely, which seemed a bit jarring, though it’s consistent with Jimmy’s brand. He strives for fun, and so did a lighthearted show that introduced a sponsored comedy bit called “Who Knew?” featuring a cameo from Walton Goggins. He and Fallon did a fake crowd surf through the audience that segued into a similarly themed commercial for Walmart that featured Goggins.
But Fallon’s show is not in LA.
Tomlinson felt compelled to be outspoken. In a direct call to oppose Trump’s policies, she said:
“We cannot just give up and let this guy do whatever he wants to this country. You can’t have America without immigrants. That would be like, I don’t know, having Epstein’s flight logs without Donald Trump.”
This was almost certainly the best we’ve seen from Tomlinson, and it made yet another case for somehow finding a way to have her stay on.
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The only positive of this tonight was FNC pre-empting Gutfeld. Probably would have made the same tired jokes he makes every night . We get it, you hate Brian Stelter and The View. Hire new people.
Regarding your final comments: The show isn’t going away because of the network or ratings. SHE WANTED TO LEAVE. Let her go. She’s a fabulous comic, but she prefers to do stand-up and loves to travel. She’s not being fired, she QUIT!
I love all the late night hosts, but was disappointed Taylor’s show was a rebooted gameshow, as I was and am ready for her talk show and nightly monologe.
You go T.
I have, after many decades of following politics have bowed out completely since the inauguration. I am 75, and during the first trump administration I though in horror; “I could die with this white trash in the Whitehouse…” Now, death looks like a mercy.
I grew up in a military family, I was born on a SAC Air Force Base, my Father fought in WWII and Korea. My Brother volunteered to go to serve in Vietnam, stayed for 3 tours of duty. We are descendants of a Revolutionary War hero. We believed in the rightness of America, its capacity for being a force for good. Then George Bush and his cronies led us to invade and murder people who dared to try to protect their country from an invasion, which pissed away the lives, limbs and sanity of our troops for absolutely nothing. We enriched the corporate donor class by funneling 7 trillion dollars into the military industrial complex.
Then we enacted “Citizens United” to make sure that the fascists could buy the government.
Our country has no future for the average citizen, yet they still vote against their own best interests. We are proud of being ignorant, we take pride in being hateful. We don’t believe in science and medicine. Corporate propaganda has made our citizens into gullible, finger pointing assholes. We call ourselves Christians, but we disregard everything Jesus taught us. We like the rape, murder, incest and cruelty filled Old Testament’s “smite ’em all and drown the rest” messaging. We want to punish everyone different from ourselves, a direct refutation of how our Nation grew to be what we used to be proud of. Wait until climate change causes huge home energy costs and scarcity of goods. Americans will go insane when the climate change that they don’t believe in begins to bite them in the ass… the government agencies that could help are gone, thanks to trump and musk.