At the start of Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert somberly confessed to doing “not great.” In the aftermath of Republican candida
At the start of Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert somberly confessed to doing “not great.” In the aftermath of Republican candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump being elected for the second time as president, every late-night TV show addressed the outcome, and attempted to find humor in a painful time for millions of Americans.
“Some people said to me, ‘Sorry you have to do a show tonight,’ which is nice of them to say. But I don’t have to do a show. I get to do a show tonight,” Colbert continued during his monologue. “I’m so grateful to be with all these talented people.” He also noted that no one enters the comedy business “because their life worked out great,” adding, “We’re built for rough roads.”
His sentiment echoes that of Colbert’s former boss, Jon Stewart, who hosted a live episode of The Daily Show during election night, which Vanity Fair attended. “This is not the end,” he told his viewers. “And we have to regroup, and we have to continue to fight and continue to work, day in and day out, to create the better society—for our children, for this world, for this country—that we know is possible. It’s possible.”
Here’s what TV’s other late-night hosts had to say about a second Trump term.
Stephen Colbert
“Well, fuck, it happened again,” Colbert said during Wednesday’s episode. “After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need not to go to jail, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election.”
The Late Show host acknowledged that while “the deep shock and sense of loss is enormous,” there is a silver lining to be found in the fact that “there’ll be a peaceful transfer of power.” Colbert continued, “All day yesterday, I was walking around proudly wearing my ‘I Voted’ sticker. Today I wore my, ‘I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity’ sticker.”
He also dispelled the notion that comedians are chomping at the bit to joke about Trump for another four years. “Now, as a late-night host, people often say to me, ‘Come on, part of you has got to want Trump to win because he gives you so much material to work with,’” Colbert said. “No, no. No one tells the guy who cleans the bathroom: ‘Wow, you must love it when someone has explosive diarrhea. There’s so much material for you to work with.’”
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