In this year-end special, reviewing the daily stupid brought to us by cable news, Hasan Minhaj is merciless. The sharpshooting Daily Show correspondent fires away at Fox News — “favorite after-school hangout of accused sex offenders” — including a brilliant takedown of Sean Hannity’s insane Clinton conspiracy chart. But he doesn’t spare Rachel Maddow’s most embarrassing moment, either.
Watching Don Lemon’s drunk New Year’s Eve 2017 moment and Tomi Lahren’s repetitive may induce cringing — and it’s all just a funny reminder not to take cable too seriously in 2018.
Trending #1 at the moment on YouTube is this full-length video of Hasan Minhaj’s monologue at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night . No doubt that will reassure the Daily Show correspondent, who stood before the assembled Washington press corps and vowed to hire Kellyanne Conway to say he killed even if he bombed.
Minhaj, a Muslim immigrant from India, is a talented comic and did his best to entertain a sometimes humorless crowd, which groaned at jokes that you may well consider hilarious. “No one wanted to do this,” he kidded, “ so of course it lands in the hands of an immigrant. Don Rickles died so you wouldn’t ask him to do this gig.”
In keeping with the event’s traditions, he roasted the nation’s top media organizations — and of course he roasted the absent president and that man’s minions at high temperature, inflicting the harshest burn on a certain strategist (“I do not see Steve Bannon here…not see Bannon…not-see Bannon…Nazi Bannon”). And while a lot of Minhaj’s jokes work — and he’s a charming guy — it’s a long speech. If you don’t have much time, you may want to view the Washington Posthighlights reel.
The complete version offers many rewards, however, including the Spicer jokes, the Ivanka jokes, the Sessions jokes, the Putin jokes, and the many Trump jokes.
The late night shows were all discussing one topic: The Super Tuesday results, and Donald Trump’s continued takeover of the Republican Party.
Perhaps the single funniest bit came from Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter, who presented their own take on the image of Chris Christie standing behind Donald Trump, feeling all of his dignity slipping away. “He’s clearly standing beside someone he clearly loathes with every fiber his being…Seriously, the guy made a commitment, now he has to support this belligerent madman — day in, and day out!”
Trevor Noah and Hasan Minhaj explained Marco Rubio’s sheer denial at how awful he’s doing, and his plan at this point to get the nomination: It involves a typo of Donald Trump’s name on the New York ballot, and diverting Ted Cruz with a fake treasure map. “Rubio is either a genius,” Trevor declared, “or the most delusional man of all time.”
Stephen Colbert declared: “Americans in 13 states voted in Super Tuesday,” making that Wednesday, “‘My God, what have we done’ Wednesday.”
Seth Meyers examined the choice that Republicans now face: “Line up behind Trump and his racist rhetoric — or disavow their party’s own likely nominee.”
Jimmy Fallon presented his own take on Trump’s victory speech and press conference: “In fact, I don’t want to just win the presidency — I want to win the last season of American Idol.”
Jimmy Kimmel set out to get everybody used to the idea of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee — and possibly even the President of the United States — with this special video presentation: The various sounds that The Donald makes, set to the music of “Hail to the Chief.”
James Corden made his audience an offer: If immigration to Canada gets shut down, he might be able to take a few of them to England.
Donald Trump’s absence from the Fox News debate was a topic for the late night comedy shows. Stephen Colbert highlighted the fact that Trump skipped the debate because he alleged that moderator Megyn Kelly was unfair to him: ” After all, why would he want to practice going head-to-head against a strong, blond woman?”
And so, Colbert put on an alternative debate of his own — featuring only Trump: “Tonight it is Donald against Trump — or as they’re known by their celebrity couple name, ‘Dump.'”
On The Daily Show, Jordan Klepper and Hasan Minhaj debated the biggest question right now in the Republican primary: Between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who is the slightly less awful one?
Jimmy Kimmel observed the irony of Donald Trump getting endorsed by Jerry Falwell Jr., who even declared that Donald embodied the teachings of Jesus Christ. “It does seem strange that a Christian leader would endorse a candidate who’s kind of a poster child for the Seven Deadly Sins.”
