With the Republican National Convention coming on top of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, it was inevitable that late-night TV would have things to say about both — and that the Media Research Center’s comedy cop, Alex Christy, would bash anyone who strayed from his preferred right-wing, pro-Trump narratives. He complained in a July 16 post that it was pointed out that Republicans would not likely tone down their rhetoric for the RNC:
Following a solemn introduction where he recalled various acts of political violence dating back to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in his youth, CBS’s Stephen Colbert returned to the jokes on Monday’s edition of The Late Show as he and CNN pundit and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger mocked the GOP and President Trump’s ability to “dial it down” at the Republican National Convention after Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump.
Colbert recalled how “RNC speakers have been told to leave their speeches unchanged, but in terms of rhetoric, are also being encouraged ‘To dial it down, not dial it up.’ So the same GOP talking points, but make it feel softer.
The Late Show then put a brightly colored border along the edge of the screen with images of a cartoon puppy, kitten, and butterfly, like you might see on a children’s educational program, as Colbert continued in an infantilizing voice, “Hi. We need to come together to recognize that illegal immigrants are being released from insane asylums to turn your kids into trans librarians. And that marriage should be between one very manly man and one younger, hotter woman who makes TikToks about homemade Tylenol. Shhh, go to sleep now. And don’t Google Project 2025.”
Later in the program, Colbert welcomed Kinzinger and asked him, “Everyone is talking, understandably, about lowering the temperature. What are you looking for in the president’s speech on Thursday? What would be a sign for you that he’s taking that advice himself?”
Kinzinger began, “Well, it would be a sign for me if he said, ‘I’m not going to run,’ right. That would be a good one, but probably not going to happen.”
In a July 17 post, Christy groused that a guest host for Jimmy Kimmel critiqued one RNC speaker, with added whataboutism:
Due to filming schedules, not all late night comedy shows are reacting live to the Republican National Convention which means that ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Anthony Anderson was reacting to night one on Tuesday when he labeled Sen. Tim Scott an “Uncle Tom” for his speech in support of Donald Trump on Monday.
Anderson set the stage for his attack on Scott earlier in his monologue, “Now, the other major league event this week is the Republican National Convention. Also known as the White People’s Choice Awards.”
After a brief digression to joke about Speaker Mike Johnson’s teleprompter malfunctioning, Anderson turned to Scott, “Last night was when the delegates officially nominated Trump, which means there was a lot of ass-kissing on display. But no one kissed more ass than the senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott.”
Anderson then played a clip of an excited Scott declaring, “On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet, and he roared! Oh, yeah. He roared!”
He would know something about overt displays of affection for a politician given his role on the series Blackish in lionizing Barack Obama.
[…]Race obsession was not unique to Anderson. On NBC’s Late Night, host Seth Meyers quipped, “President Biden spoke today in Las Vegas at the national convention for the NAACP while every Republican was busy speaking at the convention for the NAAWP.”
Christy served up a dumber kind of whataboutism in another critique of Colbert:
To help him make sense of night two of the Republican National Convention, CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed Sen. Elizabeth Warren to a live Tuesday edition of The Late Show, where the duo agreed that true national unity in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump means Republicans dropping their policy preferences and endorsing Democratic priorities, mainly gun control.
Colbert declared, “Senator, the RNC theme tonight was Make America Safe Once Again, and one of the things that makes America at any moment not a safe place is the open, ready, ubiquitous availability of guns, including the AR-15-style gun that was used against the former president on Saturday that the Democrats would like to eliminate, they would like those not available for purchase.”
[…]If Republicans reacted to an attempted stabbing of a Democratic presidential candidate by claiming that the country needs to unify by realizing that knife violence proves gun control isn’t the answer, would Colbert and Warren call that unity? Certainly not, so why is using an attack on a Republican to push Democratic priorities any different?
Christy went after another Colbert guest in a July 18 post:
CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed radio host Charlamagne Tha God to a live edition of The Late Show on night three of the Republican National Convention to irresponsibly suggest that if President Biden, or some other Democrat, wins in November, the Supreme Court will nullify it. He also suggested that Donald Trump’s rhetoric led to his being shot on Saturday, while also attacking the media for not calling him a threat to democracy in the shooting’s aftermath.
The same day, Christy was upset about another Kimmel guest host appearance by Anderson:
During the Wednesday taping of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Anthony Anderson showed why he was selected to guest host during the week of the Republican National Convention as he compared the GOP to the Ku Klux Klan while labeling the party “fascists.”
After recalling how the rapper The Mayor of Magaville performed at the RNC, Anderson had a list of other GOP-inspired puns, “But I’m looking forward to all the MAGA rap groups performing this week. There’s Run RNC, Assault and Pepper, Bone Spurs and Harmony, Cypress Hillary’s Emails.”
Anderson concluded his word plays with “my favorite: the Wu Klux Klan.”
Christy bashed Colbert yet again in a July 19 post:
CBS’s Stephen Colbert wrapped up his week of live reactions to the Republican National Convention early Friday morning by decrying the whole thing as “deeply, psychotically weird” because the party is trying to dismiss Donald Trump’s legal controversies as no big deal. Colbert would also welcome Sen. Bernie Sanders to The Late Show to claim that Trump is a threat to democracy because Elon Musk plans to give a Trump super PAC a lot of money and because Trump wants to drill for oil.
During his opening monologue, Colbert lamented, “But the thing is none of this is normal. It’s deeply, psychotically weird that this is happening at all. Less than four years ago, this man incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation’s history. Then he was impeached again.”
Rolling right along, Colbert continued, “Then he was indicted a lot. Then found liable for sexual assault and convicted of 34 felonies. And the Republicans are desperate for voters to forget all of that. Also, he’s not currently the president, so it’s weird that he spoke in front of a Zoom background of the White House.”
Later that day, Christy served up a humor-free analysis of RNC-related late-night jokes:
It was a week of ridiculing Republicans for the men of late night comedy. From Monday to Thursday, the comedians attacked Republicans as racist, cult-like drones and told more jokes about VP-nominee JD Vance in one week than they have about current VP Kamala Harris all year.
For the purposes of this study, analysts examined 19 episodes of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Anthony Anderson throughout all four nights of the RNC.
Analysts looked at how many jokes were told about Donald Trump, JD Vance, and everything else connected to the convention. What type of jokes were told and who the hosts brought on as guests to help them make sense of the proceedings were also analyzed.
[…]Throughout the week, the comedians loved to attack Republicans personally while staying away from jokes about age and polling. When the DNC arrives next month, expect the inverse to be true because President Biden’s age and bad poll numbers give the comedians an excuse not to joke about liberalism or any moral failing Democrats may have.
Meanwhile, Christy will be bashing Democrats as not just wrong but evil and replete with moral failings. So much for comedy.