Study

No Laughing Matter: 98% of ‘Comedy’ Show Campaign Jokes Target Trump

October 30th, 2024 9:20 AM

During the fall presidential campaign, a Media Research Center study found that hosts of the late-night "comedy" shows told a total of 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris -- but 1,428 of them were about Trump, and only 35 were about Harris. That's a whopping 40:1 ratio or almost 98 percent to 2 percent.

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'No ****': Comedy Shows Go All In On Kelly Calling Trump a Fascist

October 24th, 2024 10:36 AM

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly has a habit of being the go-to source for those seeking tantalizing anti-Trump stories, even as other former Trump administration officials who have soured on him cast doubt on them. However, for the men of late night comedy on Wednesday, if an anti-Trump story confirms their pre-existing biases, it must be true.

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Hillary, Fallon Promote 'Exciting' Harris Campaign

September 20th, 2024 10:00 AM

NBC’s Jimmy Fallon welcomed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Thursday’s taping of the Tonight Show to promote her new book and essentially rename the show the Kamala Harris Promotion Show.

The Incredible Shrinking Late-Night Lineup

September 14th, 2024 1:30 PM

Johnny Carson wouldn’t recognize today’s “Tonight Show.”

Study

Hyping Harris: Late Night Comedy's DNC Coverage Goes Soft

August 23rd, 2024 12:08 PM

For the late night comedy shows, the week of the Democratic National Convention provides the hosts with an opportunity to prove that they can make fun of Democrats in the same way they attack Republicans. However, a new MRC study shows they failed to do so this past week. In terms of quantity, the comedians hold 113 fewer jokes than they did during the RNC and 60 fewer jokes about Kamala…

Video

Will Late Night Apologize for Sharing Cassidy Hutchinson’s Hoax?

August 10th, 2024 1:30 PM

Colbert and co. couldn’t help themselves. They heard former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson describe a surreal scene tied to Jan. 6, 2021 and they couldn’t wait to spread it on their respective platforms.

Study

Comedy Shows Smear Republicans As Racist Cultists During RNC

July 19th, 2024 12:15 PM

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.

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Late Night Freaks Out Over Biden's Debate Performance

July 9th, 2024 11:04 AM

After a couple of weeks of vacation, the full slate of late night comedy shows returned on Monday to reveal their reactions to President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance and subsequent interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. While nobody called for Biden to step aside, there were definitely calls for him to step up his game because democracy is allegedly at stake.

Study

Late Night DNC: 94 Percent of Late Night Guests Are Liberal

July 2nd, 2024 10:00 AM

In the nine months since the end of the writers’ strike, the late night comedy shows have remained remarkably consistent, as a NewsBusters study determined 94 percent of their political guests have been liberal.

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Comedy Shows Use Hunter Verdict To Push Gun Control, Attack GOP, Trump

June 12th, 2024 2:41 PM

All five of the late night comedy talk show hosts managed to acknowledge the existence of Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict on their Tuesday shows, but mentioning something is not the same thing as joking about it. Instead, the quintet used the verdict to go after Donald Trump, Republicans, and lament the lack of gun control in America.

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Late Night Celebrates Trump Verdict With Whiskey, Blu-Rays, And More

June 4th, 2024 11:25 AM

Monday provided many of the late night comedians with their first opportunities to react to former President Trump being found guilty in his New York trial. They invoked everything from advent calendars holding whiskey to Blu-ray recorders to bad Hunter Biden analogies to applaud the verdict and attack Republicans for condemning it.

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Late-Night Panic: Biden Could Lose to Trump!

April 13th, 2024 1:03 PM

Late-night television changed forever after Donald Trump descended that escalator in 2015.

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Fallon, Clinton Implore People To Back Biden: 'Get Out There And Vote'

April 2nd, 2024 10:00 AM

NBC’s Jimmy Fallon welcomed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Monday’s edition of The Tonight Show to not only promote her new Broadway play about the women’s suffrage movement but also give those watching who may not be fans of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden a pep talk on the need to fall in line behind the latter.

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Late Night Hosts 'Cannot [Bleep] Believe' SCOTUS Took Trump Case

March 1st, 2024 10:48 AM

For the men of Thursday’s late night comedy shows, if the “MAGA justices” on the Supreme Court hand Donald Trump a victory by announcing they will hear arguments on his claim to have presidential immunity, it is “terrible news for democracy” because, for them, only when a court rules against Trump is it legitimate. They simply “cannot [bleep] believe” any other version of events.