Late night television leaned left prior to President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victory.
Now?
The shows serve as an unofficial Democratic SuperPAC, delivering talking points amidst the jokes. That’s happening now with their approach to Joe “Basement” Biden, the Democrats’ best hope to unseat President Donald Trump in the Fall.
Late night hosts alternatively hammer Republican governors for their pandemic policies while treating their Democrat peers like heroes. Samantha Bee teased the latter for peddling COVID-19-related merch, not condemning thousands to death through fatal nursing home policies.
Janice Dean would love a word with Bee.
The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, bullied and bruised from the far left for a blackface sketch 20 years old, is sounding more and more like his liberal peers these days. Fallon even trotted out a “Russia is stealing the election” gag Monday night as if it were still 2017 and stories like this didn’t exist.
Fallon did attempt a joke or two at Biden’s expense during this monologue, referencing him taking pills because he’s older.
Brutal, eh?
Another show found Fallon aggressively mocking Trump’s banter about a recent cognitive test. Meanwhile, Biden’s own cognitive skills are clearly in decline, another subject comics are loath to mention, let alone mock.
At least that’s a molecule of balance from Fallon, something you won’t find on other late night shows. This reporter did a good faith search on Google for any recent news tying Biden to Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, and John Oliver over the past few weeks.
Very little came up. The same holds true for a daily Grabien email blast, sharing videos from late night television and other sources.
The host of Last Week Tonight tweaked Biden from the far-left for supporting, not defunding, the police during a June monologue. That was more or less it for Oliver’s critical Biden barbs.
Meanwhile, Colbert is using The Late Show to douse water on the GOP’s law and order campaign, a potentially effective tool for the November elections.
Why?
Democratic mayors are standing down while rioters trash their respective cities. When these mayors do speak out, it’s to denounce federal law enforcement as Gestapo-like figures. The party’s main players repeat similar talking points.
Other Democrats deny there’s even violence occurring in Portland, which in and of itself should be catnip to late night comics. Except, of course, they’re doing the same.
So Colbert rushes in via this Biden-protection clip.
Biden hasn’t been missing entirely from the late night scene. Occasionally he pops up on one of the show’s couches, fending off softball questions. There’s nothing wrong with that approach. Late night shows are, in theory, entertainment, and guests should be treated as such.
This hands-off approach re: Biden is the new normal. It wasn’t always this way.
When Biden wasn’t running directly against Trump late night comics occasionally mocked him, and for good reason. Jon Stewart dubbed Biden’s handsy approach to women, and his frequent sniffing of their hair, “The Audacity of Grope.”
Roughly a year ago, Trevor Noah used his Daily Show pulpit to cover women accusing Biden of inappropriate behavior.
As recently as March, Noah worried about Biden’s serial gaffes. Now, those gaffes go unmentioned on his Comedy Central show.
Samantha Bee, arguably the meanest late night comic on television, is spending her days pushing vote-by-mail initiatives and anti-Trump rhetoric.
Biden fell off her radar, apparently.
Yet roughly one year ago Bee tormented Biden for his serial groping and sniffing.
Consider late night’s approach to Biden a preview of 2021 should Biden defeat President Trump in November. Late night TV will be lost without Trump, and it’s clear the group’s “truth to power” pose will wither away once a Democrat is back in the White House.
It’s started already.
[Cross-posted from Hollywood in Toto.]
