“Clapter” comedy has always been around, but it’s never felt more widespread than it has since Trump became president. From “A Closer Look” on Late Night with Seth Meyers to John Oliver’s long Last Week Tonight segments to Stephen Colbert’s monologues about the latest Trump news, it’s fair to say that we have more than our fair share of preaching-to-the-choir political comedy clips these days (and resulting blog posts like the one you’re reading right now to dump praise on them). It’s a persistent trend Michelle Wolf encapsulates well in this very meta segment, complete with a very “Closer Look”–style title sequence, from her Netflix show The Break, which outlines how formulaic political late-night segments have become. Here’s Wolf’s glorious takedown of takedowns at the end:
Writing jokes is hard. It’s, I mean, really hard. You know what’s easier? An earnest plea. So I am gonna throw my pen down on the desk, and I’m gonna shake my head in crestfallen bewilderment. I’m gonna look you in the eye, and I’m gonna tell you that Trump is bad! The news is bad! Which means that I, a comedian, have to do you the news’ job. Not because I want to, not because it makes me feel important or gives me a false sense that I’m making a change, but because they’re out there doing their horse and pony show and they’re leaving me, a comedienne, to wrangle those ponies, and ponies are hard to wrangle because they’re just horse children. Children in cages, gun reform yesterday, nevertheless I persisted, this is comedy now. And finally, the meticulously crafted clippable GIFable takedown that will fix everything, change minds, and save the republic. Are you ready, Wolf Pack? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: F*** you, Trump!
This is the part of the blog post about the political late-night comedy show segment where the writer reiterates that Michelle Wolf completely destroyed those other late-night hosts.
