Robert Bridge
If you really must watch late night political talk shows, at least prerecord them for viewing in the morning after a strong coffee.
Following Joe Biden's hotly disputed announcement for mandatory vaccinations, a decision that may affect up to 100 million Americans, late night TV hosts proved, once again, where their loyalties lie as they went to bat for the Democratic leader, sugarcoating the shocking news with predictably stale jokes and gross attacks on conservatives and, of course, Donald Trump.
While the mainstream 'legacy' media is regularly singled out for right-wing criticism over its slavish devotion to liberal ideology, people tend to overlook the powerful influence of the talk show circuit, which lulls America to sleep each night with their highly predictable monologues and one-sided laugh tracks.
In an industry packed with a suspiciously disproportionate ensemble of privileged white males - consisting of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, Bill Maher, John Oliver and James Corden, among others -the Democratic Party has found a powerful and devoted ally. And as the Biden administration announced its mandatory vaccine policy, which must rank as one of the most critical news stories in recent years, here was a great opportunity to see just how biased these late night hosts really are. Plot spoiler: extremely.
First, despite the importance of the vaccine story, almost none of the hosts mentioned that news at the beginning of their monologues, preferring to bury it under a mountain of comedic nonsense instead.
Jimmy Kimmel, for example, somehow found the opening day of the NFL football season to be of more pressing concern than the prospect of millions of American workers and their families losing their means of sustenance simply because they have chosen not to take a pharmaceutical drug.
"I'm just glad I have a reason to wear my beer helmet on Sundays again," Kimmel quipped to cheap applause on his eponymous show, which is broadcast out of the former Hollywood Masonic Temple. "I was getting a lot of dirty looks at church."
Nor did Kimmel consider the vaccine mandate important enough to warrant second place in his monologue. In a jarring segue that went from the NFL to North Korea, the host took some pot shots at leader Kim Jong-un, who appeared at a Pyongyang celebration after a lengthy absence from the spotlight. For the next two minutes, which equals a veritable eternity in TV land, Kimmel cracked jokes about how slimmed down Jong-un appeared. "They think he lost about 44 pounds...and good for his horse, too, that poor thing was exhausted."
When it finally came time to mention the pink elephant in the studio, however, Kimmel expended precious time not bashing Biden's executive overreach, but rather ridiculing those Americans who have had second doubts about taking the vaccine, or opted for alternative methods of treatment.
"Of course a lot of people are upset about this," Kimmel began snarkily. "They don't want to be told what to do, not even by the doctors who they'll eventually run to for help when they get sick...a quarter of the country thinks that herd immunity means they should be taking livestock medicine instead of the vaccination."
This is what passes for humor these days in anti-scientific debate America.
Finally, Kimmel reserved the next part of his monologue to roast a U.S. president, but not Joe Biden, of course.
"It's important to remember that less than a year ago we had a president [Donald J. Trump] whose strategy for fighting the virus was 'drink bleach'. I think they would like us to forget that so from time to time we look back at what was in the news a year ago this week."
For the next five minutes, instead of cracking one-liners about Biden and his very convincing Julius Caesar impersonation, the entire focus was on Donald Trump and former members of his entourage, like Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer. Not a single joke about Joe Biden, who seems to be - despite providing a wealth of great material - above ridicule.
And then there was the equally out-of-touch Stephen Colbert, whose Sept. 10th broadcast began with a recitation of apocalyptic media headlines before mentioning that "this afternoon, President Biden outlined his plan to curb coronavirus."
"Please, get us out of this," Corbett mockingly pleaded before a well-trained studio audience that takes its cue to applause like Pavlov's salivating dog does to a ringing bell. "We've been in the pandemic so long that my sour dough starter just got its learner's permit."
Ba-dum!
Then, following in the footsteps of his comic cohort Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert could not resist hurling jokes NOT at the current president of the United States and his highly controversial vaccine mandate, but the one who was voted out last year, yes, Donald J. Trump.
Here, Colbert narrated a ridiculous sketch called 'Seditionist Round Up' where he cracked pathetic jokes about the various individuals who are now serving time for their participation in the Jan.6th so-called 'insurrection'. Naturally, the host never mentioned an unarmed woman named Ashli Babbit, 35, a Trump supporter, who was shot and killed by a police officer as she attempted to force her way into the building.
Perhaps Bill Maher found something witty about Biden's draconian government overreach? Better not hold your breath behind that mask. Deep into his monologue, behind jokes about Texas and the Taliban, Maher, showing his fealty to the Democratic Party, if not to Big Pharma, cracked: "Biden has ordered sweeping federal vaccine mandates for private and sector employees, healthcare workers, federal contractors. Republicans, pushing back. In Texas, Governor Abbott said it is no fair if you fire people to make them do what you want, how can I sue them to make them do what I want?" And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the full extent of Maher's tepid dive into the Democratic deep end of the pandemic pool.
Finally, Seth Meyer, perhaps the least funny of all the American talk show circuit crowd, which is saying a lot since none of them possess a grain of comic genius, wasted his entire monologue berating, yes, the 45th president of the United States because Trump had remarked that Civil War Confederacy General Robert E. Lee, whose statue was recently removed from a public square in Richmond, Virginia, could have defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. Obsessing over Trump's sarcastic remark for many minutes, Meyer ran down the clock without ever mentioning the vaccine mandate.
Now, as a thought experiment, take a moment to imagine what the reaction from these well-paid court jesters would have been had Donald J. Trump announced the mandatory vaccine mandate. Actually, there's no need to imagine anything, because during the Vice Presidential debate in October Kamala Harris, squaring off against Mike Pence, responded to a question on vaccines by saying that "if Donald Trump tells us that we should take [the vaccine], I'm not taking it."
A bit like modern cartoons for children, which are not nearly as innocuous as many parents assume them to be, few people consider late night talk shows as a uniquely hazardous form of adult entertainment. In fact, that is exactly what makes them such an attractive choice of political weapon: they fly far below the radar of our collective conscience because people can't help but see them as nothing more than harmless comedy. And more so if an individual happens to agree with the left-wing political agenda these shows typically espouse.
Meanwhile, the individuals who make up the late night circuit today have little in common with their reputable predecessors, like Johnny Carson and David Letterman, for example, who tended to remain fair and unbiased when wading into the political swamp. However, they do have something in common with one of the most disreputable men in modern history. Yes, you guessed it, Adolf Hitler.
In order to more effectively manipulate the masses, the German Führer always scheduled his speeches late in the evening when his audience would be tired and their resistance lowered after a long day at work. Does that sound remotely familiar? So to conclude with a caveat: if you really must watch late night political talk shows, at least prerecord them for viewing in the morning after a strong coffee. This will better ensure that you don't fall prey to the deceptive techniques of these extremely biased entertainers who have a very heavy political ax to grind, and only on one side of the blade.