Now please bear with me here, as this is my first post and I’m still working out all the shenanigans that is my WordPress site, my Substack, and of course my brain. My format, voice, and style are very much a work in progress, but hey, the best thing to do is to jump right in, so let’s get to it!
Recently, I’ve found myself watching a lot of late-night television shows, such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I’ve also been thrilled that John Oliver is back with his 12th season of Last Week Tonight and personally can’t wait to get back into watching it.
Now I personally do enjoy a good laugh, and find sometimes the craziness of the world can be softened by a little bit of comedy. Is this an effective way to get your news? Honestly, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that it gives me a laugh and does provide me with some information on some fairly complex and challenging topics, that I otherwise may not have been exposed to.
But back to that question, “Is this an effective way to get your news?” I’ve had a keen interest in media studies ever since my time at university, and I always had an interest in untraditional media mediums for relaying information or pointing out absurdity. Over the last few months, I’ve began thinking more critically of comedy news, as well as traditional and untraditional news, and “new media” like podcasting. I don’t necessarily mean being more skeptical of news sources, although it is good to use multiple sources to help reduce bias, I’ve more or less been asking questions like: Is this effective at relaying the facts? Will I remember the facts? Does this make the issue seem more or less important than it is? If I watch all of these late-night shows, am I putting myself into an echo chamber?
I’ve been thinking about these questions, and many more, and I hope to explore them on this platform, and through research and review of peer reviewed articles, books, and other content. This is also how I intend to prepare for my Masters program at the beginning of fall 2025, where I intend to study the impacts of non-traditional, and new media on election campaigns and voter intention.
But for now, my focus is going to be on watching and reviewing some of the most popular late-night comedy news shows in the United States, with the hope to expand my review to written satire, and podcasting in the future as well. So below is my first instance of my late-night show review and comparison, I hope you enjoy.
The Week of Feb 23 to Mar 1
Do you need to watch all the late-night news shows to get the news of the week, or is one good enough? Are they good enough at all? I’ve chosen to watch multiple throughout the week in efforts to see what all gets covered, and to review some of the differences between the shows. After having noticed some repetitions and similarity between them, I’ve been curious to see how they all stack up to one another. Will they have the same (or nearly the same) jokes? Do they choose to cover different things? I’m not sure yet, but I’ll be taking a look at that over the next six months to see what I can find.
Now for my first editions, I’ve opted to review four late-night television news shows. These include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers*, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. I’ve chosen to review these shows as they are some of the most popular late-night shows in the United States, but also because they are some of my personal favourites.
I’ll also note that I’m looking at the monologues with the most details, and generally skipping over interviews that the hosts have with guests, unless of course they’re politically motivated (but we’ll discuss that a little later).
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Episode 2 – Monday, February 24, 2025
- Minor Story Mentions:
- Brazil’s former president was charge in an alleged coup scheme.
- Trump told Ukraine they should never have started the war with Russia.
- Trump said they were going to Fort Knox to check and make sure the gold is there.
- DOGE continuing to fire government workers.
- Included a direct reference to the Chainsaw of Bureaucracy at CPAC.
- As well the firing and rehiring the workers back, referencing USDA, nuclear weapons staff, and the firings of National Park and Forest Service workers.
- DOGE cuts on contracts and the claim that they had cut $55 billion worth of contracts, but in reality, it was closer to $2 billion.
- There was also discussion on Musk’s Social Security claims as well. Suggesting that there were millions of people over 150 years old claiming Social Security. When upon further review, almost none of the individuals listed without death dates were receiving Social Security.
- The Main Story Tonight: Technology (and Internet Moderation)
- Oliver discussed the recent events surrounding technology leaders like Bezos, Zukerberg, and Musk coming alongside Trump.
- Meta (Facebook)
- A video posted from Zukerberg discussed:
- The removal of fact checking from their platforms, and instead following suite with Musk’s community notes method on X (Twitter).
- Simplifying content policies on items like immigration and gender.
- Reducing filters on content, to avoid censorship.
- Oliver comments on the removal of fact checking and notes and goes into further detail explaining why this feature was not particularly effective.
- Several years ago, Zukerberg apologized for not having taken a hard enough stance against misinformation, foreign interreference and protecting users’ data and privacy.
- Zukerberg also appeared on Joe Rogan, and explained his platform and how they seek to moderate it.
- A video posted from Zukerberg discussed:
- Section 230 – companies were safe from prosecution on what people post online as they couldn’t possibly vet all of them due to the quantity of users. There are some exceptions surrounding illegal items.
- Facebook had to learn a lot in this space, being the first community.
- Facebook “Relied on what we thought were the public’s common sense and common decency, to police the site.”
- There was an interview scene from someone who worked in content moderation who manually reviewed photos describing the process.
- Oliver offers some examples for difficult to create terms, such as banning nudity: “What about statues? What about breastfeeding? What about breastfeeding statues?”
- When it came to hate speech and misinformation, examples from moderators showed how unusual and specific content moderation would be.
- There was discussion on how Facebook was not proactive, and only responded when uproar had occurred.
- It was noted that when Facebook labelled something as false or partially false that users would not click on it nearly 95% of the time, they also noted that their systems automatically dealt with 95% of hate speech on the platform as well.
- Oliver then asks “why” would be considered 95% as very effective.
- Oliver comments that the reason why Facebook is turning these features off is a result of Conservatives claiming they are being censored when it came to content moderation.
- An example was given discussing the Hunter Biden laptop issue, where Twitter and Facebook both restricted the story, and then later removed restrictions.
- During a podcast episode with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg describes the Biden administration as going after them for misinformation.
- Oliver then shows how the relationship from Trump strongly disliking Zuckerberg and Meta, claiming they worked against him in the last election, even calling for jail time for Zuckerberg, to becoming very fond of the company, after Zuckerberg donated to his inaugural fund, and Dana White now becoming a board member of Meta, and settling a lawsuit from Trump for having kicked him off the platform.
- Oliver then discusses the advertising revenue that Meta receives as it makes up 98% of their revenue. He then explains how you can change your settings so Facebook and Instagram (Meta) can’t profit as much off of your data.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Mondays)
Jon Stewart Takes on DOGE’s Misguided Budget Cuts | The Daily Show | Monday, February 24, 2025
Jon Stewart’s Monday night monologue covered the events of the week before (from Tuesday, February 18 to Monday, February 24). This past Monday he covered the following topics:
- The third-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the United Nations and their non-binding resolution requesting Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.
- This included pointing out that the United States voting against this resolution.
- The Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) headed by Elon Musk.
- Stewart expressed some curiosity on the purpose of DOGE, and suggested that it was a good idea to review government spending, and that he himself was “DOGE-Adjacent.” Stating that “I too believe government needs to be more efficient. To weed out waste fraud and abuse, and deliver the necessary services that Americans rely on more agilely.”
- He then went on to express ideas as to what could be streamlined and reviewed, assuring audience that DOGE must be working on cutting staff carefully, and based on productivity and efficiency, like with a scalpel, but then clips to a video of Elon Musk at CPAC with his “Chainsaw for Bureaucracy.”
- We saw more clips from CPAC and interviews after with speakers, hosts, and the president calling government workers swamp creatures, parasites, saboteurs, dead-enders, DEI undercover agents, fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists, and deep state bureaucrats. Stewart brings this to a point by making a joke about firing a government worker who “tests water for the appropriate levels of fecal matter.” Commenting on confusion over emotion (anger) vs efficiency.
- He discussed the connection that Republicans are making between government workers and waste, suggesting they view them as synonymous, stating that the government “could make efficiency recommendations without necessarily demonizing [government workers].”
- Stewart then cuts to the new Director of Offices and Budget, Russell Vought, saying that he “wants the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. We want when they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work.”
- He then goes on to discuss a situation where Fox News co-host, Jesse Watters, expresses sympathy for a friend who was “DOGEd” (fired). Stewart commenting on how it’s different when it’s someone you know.
- Then he follows up with news clips of various reversals in DOGE cuts, such as USDA firings of employees working on the response to bird flu, and firings of workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
- They also showed clips of news sources mentioning various unusual government expenditures, such as a million dollars used to study if cocaine makes Japanese quail more sexually promiscuous. Sewart does go on to say that some of these studies and expenditures were completely fictitious, while others were described in ways that made them seem worse than they really were. But he did state “the point is, why are we spending money on things that seem obviously stupid?”
- He also referenced DOGE’s claim of $16 billion saved in cancelled contracts. Upon further review, this amount was actually closer to $2.6 billion as per the Wall Street Journal.
- He then discussed further issues facing DOGE and them trying to get their footing. This included a specific highlight of the claim that there were people over 150 years old claiming social security, which was mostly (or entirely) false.
- Stewart then goes on “cutting money shouldn’t be this hard. I’m starting to think that we as a country don’t understand where the real waste, fraud, and abuse in our system really is.” Pulling out his “wannabe an accountant starter kit” and suggested that the government cuts:
- $3 billion in subsidies to oil and gas companies that already turn a profit.
- Carried Interest loop-hole on hedge funds, which would account for $1.3 billion.
- The $2 trillion for defence contractors for the F-35 fighter jet program.
- He then comments that “this is where the real money is, the real money, the money our free market(ish) system uses to prop up corporate profit at the expense of the taxpayer.” As an example, he references all of the benefits that pharmaceutical companies get from the government, including tax breaks, research grants, and patent extensions. Which has left Americans with “the highest drug prices in the western hemisphere.”
- He then goes onto discuss the fact that the government claims little victories against the system when it negotiated drug prices for 10 drugs during Biden’s term. Expressing frustration. This is where Stewart smashes his “world’s most dad” mug and accidentally cuts himself.
- “We live in the upside down, and don’t blame the corporations. They are profit-seeking psychopaths that need the lowest wages and the cheapest raw materials to drive their highest profits. But why do we the taxpayers, subsidize their psychopathy? That’s the waste, fraud, and abuse in our system. That’s it, that’s what we should be going after.”
- Stewart even exclaimed “I want DOGE to work.”
- “We are subsidizing the very system that makes workers lives harder in the first place. All in the name of freedom and liberty. But the greatest restriction of freedom in this country isn’t DEI and pronoun pressure, it’s fucking poverty and struggle. And the government’s role should be to end the corruption that enables that exploitation.”
- He calls for the Democrats to go live at 5pm every day to do the people’s audit in efforts to hold the government accountable.
I’d also like to note that after this episode aired, Musk posted on X that he would go on the Daily Show and be interviewed by Jon Stewart, providing the show is unedited. The Daily Show replied to Musk, agreeing to host him. Perhaps something we can look forward to next week or the coming weeks?
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monologues (Mondays to Thursdays)
Fed Workers Can Ignore Musk Email | A Living Cringe Meme | Trump Licks Feet In Viral AI Video | Monday, February 24, 2025
Stephen Colbert’s Monday night monologue covered the events of the weekend (Friday, February 21 to Sunday, February 23) as well as Monday, February 24. This past Monday he covered the following topics:
- The third-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine:
- United States’ resolution to the UN that did not blame Russia for starting the war.
- The EU and Ukraine also had a motion that condemned Russia for the invasion, which the U.S. voted against, alongside Russia and North Korea.
- Elon Musk & DOGE:
- The mass email that DOGE sent asking for government workers to provide a bullet point list of 5 items they accomplished last week, threatening that a non-reply equaled a resignation.
- There was significant confusion. Various government departments like National Intelligence and the FBI department heads told workers not to respond.
- CPAC and Musk’s “Chainsaw for Buraucracy”, as well as Musk’s “becoming meme” commentary, and his desire to “legalize comedy.”
- Federal workers comment on Musk’s desire to fire federal workers.
- The AI video of Trump sucking on Musk’s toes at the headquarters of housing and urban development.
- Trump’s attempt to put loyalists into high-ranking government positions. Specifically, Kash Patel as the new FBI Director.
- Patel had also ensured Senators that his deputy director would be an active Special Agent (as per usual), and then went on to select Dan Bongino, a right-wing podcaster instead.
Vulgar Replies To Musk’s Email | Trump’s Mystery Bruise | Hooters In Trouble | Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Stephen Colbert’s Tuesday night monologue covered the events of Tuesday, February 25, 2025. This past Tuesday he covered the following topics:
- He revisited the DOGE email sent over the weekend to government workers, requesting 5 bullet points of what they accomplished that past week.
- Colbert highlighted some of the rebellious responses that some government workers replied with.
- Government agencies were not aligned on whether their employees should respond, some told workers not to respond, while others told them to respond, and others told them they could respond if they wanted to.
- Trump himself stated “If you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired.”
- Musk stated on X that: “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “Everyone is working together as one unified team.”
- Then on Tuesday afternoon, Trump again said “It’s somewhat voluntary, but it’s also, if you don’t answer I guess you get fired.”
- Trump’s Monday meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron:
- Highlighting the bruise on Trump’s hand and the combination of odd handshakes shared between the two.
- Trump also said that the money provided to Ukraine from European countries was a loan, in which Macron corrected him stating it was a combination of “loans, guarantees, grants, and we provided real money.”
- Colbert highlighted a company that’s selling an updated globe featuring the renaming’s of American landmarks including Mount McKinley and the Gulf of America, as well as being geographically incorrect, providing Canada with an additional great lake. The company also sells another globe, featuring a massive version of the United States. Colbert highlighted the cost of the globes at $240 (USD) and poked fun, offering to sell a blue dodgeball with “AMERICA” written cross it.
- There were also a couple minor additions including:
- Hooters preparing to file for bankruptcy.
- Joann Fabrics closing all remaining US stores.
Who Runs DOGE? | White House Press Corps: We’re Cooked | America’s Gold Card For Rich Foreigners | Feb 26, 2025
Stephen Colbert’s Wednesday night monologue covered the events of Wednesday, February 26, 2025. This past Wednesday he covered the following topics:
- Trumps first cabinet meeting:
- Colbert cracked a joke about Musk being in charge rather than Trump.
- Musk calling himself the “Humble Tech Support.”
- Trump highlighting the money that DOGE is saving.
- The White House has insisted that Musk is not in charge of DOGE, instead said that the acting DOGE administrator was “career government official Amy Gleason… [who] at the time of the announcement… was on vacation in Mexico.”
- Trump’s displeasure towards a free and fair press:
- How the Associated Press refused to recognize the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and as a result they were banned from the Oval Office and Airforce One. After taking the administration to court, a judge rejects the immediate restoration of their access to the White House. The White House then put up banners stating “Victory, Gulf of America.”
- “Since the 1950s, the White House Correspondence Association has decided who was in the White House press pool. But now the White House has seized control and will decide which outlets cover events with the president, so they’ll be able to include more Trump friendly outlets.” – Colbert and Politico
- Even Fox news expressed some concern on the White House calling the shots in this space.
- Gold Card Visas:
- Trump has presented a new type of visa which would cost $5 million.
- Giving you “green card privileges plus.”
- Trump also broke down how much that would earn the United States if a million or ten million people made the purchase.
- Colbert pointed out that immigrants can “acquire green cards by investing a certain amount toward a business in the U.S.” (Bloomberg). So, the program was somewhat redundant.
- When asked if a Russian Oligarch would be eligible for one of these cards, Trump replied “yeah, possibly, hey I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
MAGA Gets Buyer’s Remorse | Coffee, Eggs, And Potato Chip Prices Spike | Anti-Aging Pill For Dogs | Feb 27, 2025
Stephen Colbert’s Thursday night monologue covered the events of Thursday, February 27, 2025. This past Thursday he covered the following topics:
- MAGA Buyer Remorse:
- Voters voted for Trump as they believed he would bring prices down on day one, but on day 38, they believe prices are still too expensive.
- Some voters aren’t happy that there is so much cutting happening in the government workforce, and that there are too many mistakes and reversals happening.
- Consumer Confidence and Uncertainty Index:
- A high degree of uncertainty and low consumer confidence with the worry of a recession.
- Some bodegas in New York City have begun selling eggs in smaller quantities than the traditional twelve due to affordability issues.
- There is an increase in egg smuggling attempts into the U.S.
- There has also been an increase in panic buying of eggs.
- USDA has offered money for biosecurity improvements for impacted farms.
- Coffee prices have also increased due to bad coffee growing seasons in Brazil and Vietnam.
- Potato chip prices are also increasing.
- FDA flu vaccine design:
- FDA cancelled the meeting of vaccine experts who advise on flu shot design for next flu season. But the FDA will still make recommendations for manufacturers.
- Anti-aging pill for dogs:
- The pill has passed through a key FDA hurdle.
Late Night with Seth Meyers a Closer Look (Mondays to Thursdays)
*Meyers was off this past week.
And there you have it…
I hope you enjoyed this first summary, and hopefully I can offer some more commentary as we continue onwards, and perhaps develop a slightly more condensed version moving forward. But not bad for a first attempt if I do say so myself.
Comedy Communications 