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Attention House Republicans: Do Not Come After Our Late Night Hosts

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | May 9, 2017 |

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | May 9, 2017 |


A while back, I watched this video from Vox about why comedians are better at covering Trump and the quisling Republican party than the mainstream media. Basically it’s because comedians see the bullshit, they call it bullshit, and then they move onto why this bullshit is important. Mainstream media types don’t think that’s sufficient though. So they spend lots of time rolling around in the bullshit trying to determine if it’s exactly the kind of bullshit they think it is or if there’s some non-bullshit matter buried beneath all the bullshit or, if someone disagrees with them about it being bullshit, why that person doesn’t think it’s bullshit. Meanwhile comedians are half a mile down this story’s road, and luckily don’t smell like manure.

All of which is to say: House Republicans, stop coming after late night talk show hosts. Not only are you not on their level, you’re not even in their game. For starters, take Late Night’s A Closer Look segment from last night on the blatant hypocrisy demonstrated by the Republican party on the AHCA. Surely no competent career politician would look at Meyers’ history of in-depth take downs, and think, “Yeah, this is a guy to whom we should just send a generic form letter.” Right?

Jesus Christ, Paul Ryan, you’re so, so bad at your job. How did you think this was going to go? That you’d point out, “Ah, well actually, from a technical standpoint no one is taking from the poor to give to the rich because the actual mechanism by which taxes are collected is under the voluntary agreement for employment, and they’re therefore relinquishing their taxes willingly. POINT RYAN”? Because Meyers is not interested in your bullshit. At all. The basic fact of the bill is that it takes money, and therefore access to healthcare, away from poor people, and reduces the taxes of the rich. Meyers sees that, and is willing to say so.

Also not willing to take any bullshit? Jimmy Kimmel. Remember when Kimmel gave that heartfelt account of his son’s tumultuous first few days of life including open heart surgery? And his crazy, socialist demand that three-hour-old infants with the same heart condition not die because their families can’t afford it? We know how Compassionate Conservatives responded to that, right?

Now, I could go on a rant about how Kimmel wasn’t asking that everyone be given “free” healthcare, or that single payer health care is cheaper than a profit driven system, or that Americans are less satisfied with our healthcare system than other countries despite the fact that we pay more for it. But here’s the thing: I know I’m not going to do a better, more insightful, funnier job than the people paid to take complicated national issues, and turn them into entertaining ten minute pieces. So I’m going to do what Republicans should have done in the first place, and let Jimmy Kimmel handle it.