Monologues about censorship and tongue-in-cheek comments about cosying up to U.S. President Donald Trump took the spotlight in American late-night shows Thursday night.
Popular American late-night hosts spoke out in support of veteran comic Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was suspended indefinitely Wednesday by ABC over comments Kimmel made about the assassination of right-wing personality Charlie Kirk.
“I’m your host Stephen Colbert, but tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” Colbert said in his opening monologue for CBS’s “The Late Show.” He criticized the suspension of Kimmel’s show as “blatant censorship.”
“It always starts small,” he said, referencing the decisions made in the early weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency, like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
“Seems harmless, but with an autocrat you cannot give an inch,” Colbert said. “If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naïve.”
Kimmel’s suspension comes months after CBS announced “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” would be cancelled next May.
Colbert, a persistent critic of Trump, had criticized a settlement between the U.S. president and Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, days before, but the network attributed the cancellation to “financial reasons.”
Kimmel has yet to speak publicly about the suspension. Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump called the suspension “great news for America,” in a post on Truth Social, saying that NBC should cancel Fallon and Myers next.
On NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon also spoke in support of Kimmel, calling him a “decent, funny and loving guy.” Fallon said he hopes Kimmel and his show return.
Fallon then launched into a bit, saying he would cover Trump’s trip the U.K. as usual, despite concerns that late-night hosts and comedians will be censored or no longer speak their minds.
“President Trump just wrapped up his three-day trip to the U.K. and he —” Fallon said before a deep off-screen voice cut him off, ending the sentence with “looked incredibly handsome.”
The joke continued, with the voice speaking over Fallon and complimenting Trump every time Fallon was clearly making disparaging comments, going so far as to replace a reference to Jeffrey Epstein with the name of Jeff Goldblum, and nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jokes about censorship also featured on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, who made an unusual Thursday appearance on the late-night program. The show was introduced as the “all-new, government-approved Daily Show, with your patriotically obedient host Jon Stewart.” On screen, Stewart sat at his desk, pretending to be visibly fearful on set.
Throughout the show, Stewart played up the role of late-night host fearful of upsetting the government and facing retribution.
“Some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely … a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that,” he said before pausing.
“Not me though, I think it’s great,” he joked.
NBC late-night host Seth Meyers also played up the joke of switching to “support” Trump to avoid losing his show. He jokingly called Trump “a great president, an even better golfer” and said that any clips of Meyers poking fun at the president are “obviously deepfakes.”
Later in his show, Meyers said it is “a privilege and an honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend,” and a privilege and honour to continue hosting “Late Night.”
“We’re going to keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it, with enthusiasm and integrity,” he said.
Followed by a fart noise and applause.
