In every Presidential election, there’s one guaranteed winner: Late-night shows. That’s been truer than ever this election season now that The Daily Show and its alums have taken over late night. We’ve shifted from light jokes about sound bites to deep, insightful, and funny looks at the absurdity of politics. Here are a few of our favorites, sorted by show.
Late Night With Seth Meyers
Meyers takes on the reaction of Trump supporters on Hillary Clinton’s claim they’re “a basket of deplorables,” asking why that’s so offensive when Trump is, well, Trump. Seriously, guys, Clinton is running ads where the guy swears in front of a hot mic at a political rally.
Meyers also took on the seemingly goofy moment when it was revealed Trump pretended to be his own publicist and laid out that, no, a man so insecure and preoccupied with how he was seen might have genuine problems with the Presidency.
Not that Meyers let the Democratic Party off the hook. One of his best “A Closer Look” segments this election season involved the ongoing struggles of the Affordable Care Act to live up to the “affordable” aspect of the name, and how Trump and the wider GOP have failed to capitalize on them despite being adamantly opposed to the ACA and everything it stands for. Trump is supposed to be great at golf, and he whiffs a chip shot like this?
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
Of all the takes on finally having the first female nominee for President, Bee’s was probably the funniest, not least for the Terminator 2 reference.
Mike Pence has largely been lucky this election season: His fellow nominee on the ticket is so loud, and has so much happening around him at all times, that Pence has mostly just had to keep his head down and not draw attention. Unfortunately for the former governor of Indiana, Bee looked right at him in this segment detailing Pence’s checkered career running the Hoosier State, and mostly running it into the ground.
Bee also offered the best perspective on the inescapable issue of Clinton’s email server, recruiting Sarah Paulson to dramatically read the leaked emails dumped across the internet. Which was a smart choice, as it rapidly becomes clear these emails are roughly as juicy as Trump’s well-done steaks.
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah
The Daily Show started the year off right, with Trevor Noah looking at the candidates, weighing his options… and then asking America to consider just canceling the election until it can find somebody better.
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The Daily Show has spread the love among correspondents this election, starting with Hasan Minhaj, who hit the floor of the GOP convention and asked delegates what states he should visit on his farewell tour before Trump threw him out of the country.
Still, the show’s single greatest moment this year remain an attempt to fact-check Trump, something multiple news outlets have assigned full-time staff to do. By the end of it, Desi Lydic takes a page from the gaming world and rage-quits the entire segment. Which more or less sums up the news over the last few months, really.
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
In October, the Trump campaign had to deal with a leaked tape featuring Trump making crude remarks and stating that engaged in sexual assault. Oliver could have piled onto Trump along with the rest of the news cycle, but instead he made a pretty good point about Billy Bush, who chuckled along with Trump about the whole thing: “F*** that guy.”
Speaking of scandals, Oliver also ran an important, and hilarious, segment about just how that particular gross sausage is made, especially around Hillary Clinton, and uses it to point out that no matter what you can grind out about a candidate, that doesn’t make it true.
Oliver’s best moment, though, was his take on Khazir and Ghazala Khan, the grieving parents of a soldier killed in the Iraq War, who blasted Trump from the stage of the Democratic National Convention, and Trump’s furious attacks on the man. Oliver dropped all comedic pretense and laid out just why a Presidential nominee shouldn’t treat a Gold Star family so cruelly.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Colbert has, of course, shifted away from the satire of conservative pundits he did so well on Comedy Central to being more himself, and slightly fluffier, with his hosting duties on The Late Show. But that doesn’t mean he’s done with politics, and he had an especially sharp take on Trump’s theory that the election is “rigged,” putting it all together in a familiar form.
Not that Colbert set aside his Colbert Report days altogether. When Trump’s belief that Obama was not a U.S. citizen, and Trump’s $5 million offer to charity for Obama to prove his citizenship, returned to the news, Colbert reminded Trump that he has a million-dollar bid of his own on the table.
That said, Colbert was at his funniest, and most fiery, when he took on Trump’s muddled response to the tragedy in Orlando, where 49 people were killed and 53 injured. It should have been a simple thing to denounce, but Trump struggled, so Colbert broke out the chalkboard and explained why, exactly.
Come November 9th, we’ll all be relieved, and there will be no shortage of other problems for the late night crews to tackle and mock. But if there’s one good thing out of Election 2016, it’s that at least we got some great comedy out of it.
