Some people might be inclined to roll their eyes whenever someone says, “Imagine if they said that about Islam,” but such a hypothetical was warranted on Thursday’s edition of After Midnight on CBS. Host Taylor Tomlinson welcomed a trio of drag queens to her late night “comedy” game show to equate Catholicism with “brain rot” and exchange other bits of anti-Catholic and anti-Christian sentiment.
Tomlinson, who has spent the last several years trying to disassociate herself with her younger self that started her comedy career at her church, set the stage, “If there is one thing Catholics hate, it's fun. They hate more than one thing.”
After the guffaws from the audience subsided, she continued, “Case in point: Pope Francis recently warned a committee of journalists that excessive scrolling causes ‘brain rot.' Oh, okay, well, how did he know about brain rot if he isn't scrolling all night? The Pontiff doth protest too much. Panelists, how chronically online is the Pope?”
When Tomlinson assembled a panel of three drag queens, it was easy to predict where such a question would go. BenDeLaCreme went first, “So much that he has brain rot, or, sorry, Catholicism. I always get these two confused.
Next up was the contestant with the sacrilegious pun name, Peaches Christ, who answered, “He is online so much that he calls shirtless pictures of Jesus thirst traps.”
Finally, there was Jinkx Monsoon, who broke out the Italian accent despite the Pope being from Argentina, “He lost the Vatican in online poker. And now he has to sell a the pope rings on the Etsy.”
When CBS decided to hire Tomlinson less than two years ago for a less political comedy game show, they had an opportunity to do something different and reach out to non-liberal audiences. Instead, they chose to do this. After Midnight is executive produced by Stephen and Evelyn Colbert, but despite his audience with the Pope, Colbert’s relationship with the religious left often prioritizes the “left” part.
Here is a transcript for the January 30-taped show:
CBS After Midnight
1/31/2025
12:49 AM ET
TAYLOR TOMLINSON: If there is one thing Catholics hate, it's fun. They hate more than one thing. Case in point: Pope Francis recently warned a committee of journalists that excessive scrolling causes “brain rot.” Oh, okay, well, how did he know about brain rot if he isn't scrolling all night? The Pontiff doth protest too much. Panelists, how chronically online is the Pope? DeLa.
BENDELACREME: So much that he has brain rot, or, sorry, Catholicism. I always get these two confused.
TOMLINSON: Peaches.
PEACHES CHRIST: He is online so much that he calls shirtless pictures of Jesus thirst traps.
TOMLINSON: Jinkx.
JINKX MONSOON: He lost the Vatican in online poker. And now he has to sell [ITALIAN ACCENT] a the pope rings on the Etsy.
