If you’re sick of watching people like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert devolve into a nightly routine of anti-Trump jokes and insults then you’re in the same boat as former late-night legend Jay Leno.
The former “Tonight Show” host had good things to say about the show hosts, and that they were indeed funny, but the negativity that has pervaded the late night show slots has been “depressing” to watch.
From Hollywood Reporter:
Late-night has always been pretty topical. The only trouble is now everyone has the same topic. (Laughs.) It’s all depressing Trump stuff. And they all do a great job. Seth Meyers is a great writer; Jimmy Kimmel does a good job; Jimmy Fallon does a great job. I like Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah [on Comedy Central] and Samantha Bee [on TBS]. The trouble is that there’s such negativity now. When I did the show, Bush was dumb and Clinton was horny and it was human problems. Now it’s all anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, anti-Salvadoran; it’s such a negative thing. God bless all the late-night hosts, they make it funny, but ultimately, it’s depressing.
Leno is certain to make people understand that he’s not a Trump supporter, however. Still, he does lament that late-night programming is no longer an escape from the more serious parts of the world:
You don’t really watch late-night TV to get away from reality anymore; now it’s more in your face. You laugh but then you go to bed going, “Oh man, the world is really pretty rough.” And it’s not, it’s one man that causes all these problems!
While anti-Republican sentiment is in no way new, the way the current crop of late night hosts has ratcheted it up to 11 has been hard to watch, and the ratings show it.
Overall, late-night viewership has seen declines ever since the Trump bashing began. While the topic might be fresh, the fact that it’s about the same topic over and over again makes the jokes feel old. Add onto that the fact that some hosts, like Kimmel, completely ditch the comedy and go for either outrage or on camera tears. The same kind they used to make fun of Glenn Beck for.
Also, Samantha Bee isn’t even funny, so that doesn’t help.
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