Donald Trump recently came after SNL, a comedy show, for having the gall to joke about him. “Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC,” the president tweeted in response to a sketch that mocked his “national emergency” over the border wall. “Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into.” Trump has since turned his attention to late-night talk shows (his attention is usually on television) and how they’re “unwatchable.” If he was referring to a certain someone making guests play “Despacito” with their teeth, yes, but that’s not what Trump meant.
“Jay Leno points out that comedy (on the very boring late night shows) is totally one-sided. It’s tough when there’s only one topic.” @foxandfriends Actually, the one-sided hatred on these shows is incredible and for me, unwatchable. But remember, WE are number one – President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2019
Trump was agreeing with comments made by Jay Leno on Tuesday’s Today show. When asked by Al Roker whether he missed hosting the Tonight Show, Leno replied, “No, it’s different. I don’t miss it. You know, everything now is, if people don’t like your politics, they — everyone has to know your politics.”
“I kind of used [Johnny Carson’s] model. People couldn’t figure out. ‘Well, you and your Republican friends’ or ‘Well, Mr. Leno, you and your Democratic buddies.’ And I would get hate mail from both sides equally. But when people see you as one-sided, it just makes it tough. And plus, I did it when, you know, [Bill] Clinton was horny and [George W.] Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier.” (Via)
Leno also asked for a “bit of civility [to] come back to it” and that it’s not easy making jokes in the Trump-era, “because the punch line of the joke used to be, ‘That’s like the president with a porn star.’ Well, now the president is with a porn star. Where do you go with that?” You apparently go to Twitter, where the president used Fox and Friends to make a point about TV programming being one-sided, because irony is dead. At least others picked up on the self-own.
Have you see the "one-sidedness" of Fox and Friends? I assume you didn't notice, right?
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 13, 2019
Yet you can watch the one-sided hate of Fox and Friends??? 🤔
— Cyrus McQueen (@CyrusMMcQueen) March 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/Iwanski/status/1105812216455012352
Imagine if late night show monologues were all pro Trump?
‘You guys hear how the Left doesn’t want Nazis marching. Can you believe it? They are worried they will get replaced. Now who is afraid of losing jobs.’
(Applause Sign)
— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) March 13, 2019
(Via The Hill)