From bringing in pillows to putting a dog in an Oval Office set, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and other late-night hosts went live for the midterms.
Although some may have turned to comedy last night, others may have stayed glued to more straightforward news, but still want to know if there were any good jokes. Suffice it to say that there were, indeed, strong jokes from the likes of Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and even Jimmy Kimmel — yes, that Kimmel — had some positive gags.
Here’s what you missed if you couldn’t pull away from CNN or your news network of choice last night.
We’ll start with Meyers’ most significant bit — his famous Closer Look segment, done live.
Props to him on the Indiana Jones reference; yes, even Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has some cool moments. As for Kim Davis, her opponent wasn’t actually a gay wedding cake (shockingly, yes, that was a joke), but she really did lose her race.
As of this writing, the House of Representatives has indeed been secured by the Democratic Party, with 19 seats still outstanding according to Politico. That’s just enough to have the majority.
Next up, we’ll look at Kimmel:
Okay, we’ll give Kimmel this: he had the best burn of the night with that line about the president calling outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan “Don Jr.” thanks to all the disappointments. (To be fair, CNN already started reporting last night that the rift is getting bigger between the two, to the point where this piece got published before many results had actually come in, which is wild all on its own.)
To round out the network trifecta, we turn to Colbert, who has a puppy and some attempts at singing before we get into his monologue:
There is not a law that says a dog can’t be president, much like there isn’t a rule banning dogs from playing basketball (at least in Air Bud). Frankly, a cute dog running on the platform of being a good dog would be refreshing.
That aside, here’s his actual monologue:
If Kimmel had the greatest verbal burn, then whichever writer or intern found the photo of a voter gesturing at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as they both voted really needs a raise at the very least. Colbert’s special guests — including Scott Bakula in character — really didn’t interrupt too much.
Keep an eye on that Idris Elba joke, by the way.
Finally, on the cable side of things, we have The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which also went live:
See what we mean about the Sexiest Man Alive joke? Not that it’s not worth making twice, because it is a long overdue award, but it does feel a bit lazy. To give Noah credit, though, he did highlight some of the history-making moments that happened last night, including big firsts for Muslim and Native American women (say hi, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Deb Haaland, and Sharice Davids!), the first openly gay man being elected governor, and more.
All in all, at least we have some things to laugh about again — and still more to do. Stay tuned to Culturess for more fallout from the midterms.