Two late-night shows tackled the events in Los Angeles last night by channeling Ken Burns.
The Trump Administration’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles—a move widely seen as unnecessary—inspired both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show to craft their own tongue-in-cheek war documentaries inspired by filmmaker Ken Burns’ iconic The Civil War miniseries.
The Late Show’s take came at the top of the show in a pre-taped cold open titled The Ice Protests: A Film by Ken Burns. Opening with a hand writing a letter with a quill, a man’s voice is heard in voiceover. “My dearest Martha,” it begins. “It has been four days now since we’ve been deployed to Los Angeles. I still have no clue what our mission is. So far, it’s been mostly standing around, sleeping on floors, and seeing the house where they shot The Goldbergs.”
Naturally, the short ends with the narrator interrupting himself with a Rod Stewart sighting.
Over on Comedy Central, host Desi Lydic introduced The Daily Show’s take on Ken Burns-style LA coverage as part of her opening news segment. Covering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s projection that the armed forces deployment will last at least 60 days, Lydic noted that’s long time for soldiers who reportedly don’t have much to do.
“It’s going to make for a very weird Ken Burns documentary,” she said as the show cued up a sepia-toned pre-tape, this one titled Ken Burns Presents: A Soldier’s Experience in Los Angeles. Another hand writing by quill—this time to “my dearest Susie.”
“I write from the not-at-all war-torn Whole Foods parking lot on Fairfax and 3rd, across from The Grove,” he says. “In previous tours, I witnessed awful carnage, but today I did a celebrity home tour.” Running nearly twice as long as The Late Show’s, the clip works in references to Hailey Bieber, Erewhon, Nobu, and Kelsey Grammar.
“Sadly, last night we lost Johnny,” the narrator says in one of the segment’s best lines. “He caught the improv bug and signed with UTA.”
Of course, it’s not unusual for late-night shows to have moments of parallel thinking—particularly with a news item as ubiquitous as the ongoing Los Angeles protests. In this case, the similar jokes also live within the same extended family. Not only is Colbert a Daily Show alum, but Jon Stewart is an executive producer on both programs.
