Late night comedy’s regular trashing of conservatives and Republicans is not confined to the hosts. Oftentimes, guests are brought on to parrot the host's beliefs, and with a new Republican president, an outgoing host, and another that was briefly suspended, those guests had lots to talk about this year. Here are the ten worst.
10. October 14: Actress Bette Midler on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Colbert
MIDLER: Did you ever know that you're my Frodo? You stand for what's right with wit and class. Thank you. And I hold you high as the great eagles 'cause you never kissed the orange ass. You never kissed the orange ass, never kissed the orange ass. Oh, you, you, you, you never—
AUDIENCE: Kissed the orange ass.
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.
“This is really different, and in fact, I was reflecting on how different this is, even from Russian oligarchy, because…You know, at least Putin had a very clear red line with his oligarchs. The grand bargain of the early 2000s was he was going to let them get rich on condition that they kept their noses out of his political business…This is not good news because I like democracy… the broligarchs really have an explicit political agenda, and it is essentially anti-democratic and almost monarchical.”
7. January 14: Comedian Bill Burr on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Luigi Mangione
“CNN and Fox News are not going to bring up the insurance companies that are just going to keep everybody's premiums and still give themselves a bonus. Yes! Free Luigi! I love how they acted surprised. “Why did that happen?” I have no -- he wrote on the bullets is why it happened.”
6. September 22: CNN’s Jake Tapper on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers on Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension
“I mean, I thought it was pretty much the most direct infringement by the government on free speech that I've seen in my lifetime.”
“He doesn't think there should be elections and they are consolidating power, they're disempowering Congress, ignoring Congress, defunding agencies or closing agencies. That's Congress's job, that's not the president's job. When they are defying court orders, that's them saying the courts don't have authority over the president, that's consolidating all the power in one man, that's authoritarianism, and that's what you do when you don’t ever want to have an election because you want to stay in power for life, and that is what they are trying.”
4. February 10 and September 18: The New Yorker Editor David Remnick on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Donald Trump and Russia.
“But now it went the other direction and the oligarchs took over this country in concert with Vladimir Putin and before him, Yeltsin. And to see at an inauguration, a few weeks ago, of the tech titans of this world sitting in the best seats in the house, right behind the president of the United States was the most ominous thing.”
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“There was real journalism on television and in newspapers and radio. It was exciting, it was productive, the world was full of debate. Putin came to power on New Year's night, 1999-2000. And, you know who he went after first? This will sound a little familiar to you: comedians.”
3. July 21: Actress Sandra Oh on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS cancelling Colbert
OH: I am so sorry and saddened and properly outraged for the cancellation of late night here. And not only for yourself and for this entire family who are here but for what it means, of what it means where we are in our culture, and what it means for free speech. So, I just want to say sorry, and also if I can have your hand.
COLBERT: Yes.
OH: To CBS and Paramount, a plague on both of your houses
2. February 4: Comedian W. Kamau Bell on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Donald Trump
BELL: Trump has one of the greatest resumes of racism in the history of racism. Yes.
COLBERT: He’s an all-star.
BELL: He's a first ballot hall of fame racist. He is the LeBron James of racism
“And the new season that he's preparing is very troubling. Like tomorrow night they have a youth choir made up entirely of Elon Musk's children. Because Hamilton canceled its engagement, they are producing Lee Greenwood's all-rap musical tribute to Ronald Reagan starring Kanye West. It's called Trickle Down. That is followed by a new production of The Sound of Music told from the point of view of the Nazis. Trust me, trust me, you don't want to hear the list of their favorite things. And if that wasn't enough, he just canceled an appearance by the gay men's chorus, which upset a lot of people, especially—yes, yes, especially those conservative Republicans on Grindr.”
