Samantha Bee truly lucked out with her return from hiatus. Not only did she get to follow Barack Obama’s farewell address from the night before, but she was the first late night host to really feast on the unverified-but-hilarious intel report that claims Donald Trump is in collusion with Russia, and they have video of him enjoying a “golden shower.” While not your typical kinky situation, the incident described in the file still inspired a fine selection of jokes and memes online while also forcing the president-elect to deal with the accusations with his wild press conference on Wednesday.
Bee uses her opportunity well, unleashing her own fair share of jokes that covered the report, the “golden showers,” Trump’s showcase of envelopes during his press conference, and his attacks on CNN and Buzzfeed. She also points out how the entire fiasco outshone Obama’s farewell speech, but not to the point that it was lost completely. It was just a perfect balance of one president leaving in the typical fashion while the other continues to be on the most unorthodox path in history.
She was sure to include that the “golden showers” was not the truly shocking part of the report, pointing out that the allegations that Trump is working with Russia would be highly illegal while “watersports” are not. That doesn’t diminish the comedy of it all, but it’s just a thin, murky layer keeping us from looking at the scarier parts below.