Late Night Comedy Unpacks the Aftermath of the Election

Well, the election’s finally over, but almost nobody predicted this outcome. In many of the left-leaning parts of the country, the atmosphere was a sad and angry one. How did the late night comedy shows, which tend to skew left, treat Trump’s win?

Starting with “Democalypse 2016” on “The Daily Show” and Stephen Colbert’s “Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going To Clean Up This Sh*t?” the mood went from nervous to shocked to somber as it became apparent that Trump would win. In the former of the two shows, Trevor Noah and the other Daily Show correspondents got progressively more unsettled, as Roy Wood Jr. was drinking “Pepto-Bismol” by the bottle. By the time guest Ana Marie Cox came out, everyone was in full panic. Stephen Colbert, too, signed off stunned. Desperately looking for states that hadn’t called in yet, he tried to pull himself together and end on a note about how divided America was in order to bring everyone together. While his signoff moved millions of Americans, the tone of late night television on Wednesday night wasn’t close to as positive, although the hosts tried their hardest to make jokes.

Even with a day to recover, most hosts were still shocked. Overall, late night shows tended to cover the same variety of topics, including: how to explain the election results to one’s children, the legalization of marijuana in four states (Trevor Noah: “They go low, we get high”), the pollsters (Jimmy Kimmel: “Nate Silver has been downgraded to Nate Bronze”), and the political division in America. Shows had a variety of approaches, however, to the post-election aftermath. Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon spoke on the election for the first few minutes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” in a joking tone and then continued with their shows as scheduled. On “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Stephen Colbert spent the first half of the show talking about the election by himself in a more composed but sadder state than the night before and afterwards talked about it with his guests, looking desperate for them to bring some joy to the show. While he had jokes, it was clear he wasn’t in a happy mood. Seth Meyers seemed to feel similarly on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” nearly in tears as he lamented Hillary Clinton’s defeat. He tried his hardest to make jokes, but came off as too alarmed. He spent most of the night discussing the election, except when Wendy Williams came on, at which point he seemingly wanted only to talk about pop culture.

The two shows that spent the most time covering the post-election were “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” Samantha Bee has a lot of experience with political coverage; although she was shocked and horrified, she seemed very together and was able to give one of the best post-election shows as a result. She spent the show passionately arguing that electing Trump was a bad decision, although she ended on a positive note, with guest act Lizzo giving a tremendously moving performance of her hit “Good as Hell” preceded by an a capella rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Trevor Noah also had a great show set up: He was frazzled as well but is a naturally calmer comedian than many of the names mentioned previously and was able to help guide the show through his correspondents' panic. The highlight of the night as a whole, however, was when correspondent Hasan Minhaj gave an impassioned speech about his fears and his anger at Trump supporters that resonated better than any joke made that night.

On a day of extreme shock and anguish, late night comedians tried—but couldn’t necessarily give—any reassurance. Instead, the best moments were the raw, personal ones, like Hasan Minhaj or Seth Meyers trying to stay positive about the idea that one day a different woman could become president. Nobody really felt in the mood for jokes, including the writers, as Samantha Bee pointed out. As a result, many pieces seemed dull and awkward because they couldn’t resonate. Although many late night comedy shows tried to do post-election coverage as they would any other subject, no one was really laughing this week.