Comedians cry while Trump has the last laugh

TOI correspondent from Washington: Late night comedians cry as Donald Trump was the last laugh in the 2024 US presidential election.
The group of about a half-dozen satirists from the mostly liberal television networks vented against Trump after his stunning victory on Tuesday, some of them breaking down in tears and sobbing.
“It was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him, and guess what? It was also a bad night for everyone who voted for him. “You just don’t notice it yet,” said Jimmy Kimmel, with whom Trump has frequently clashed. began darkly with a sketch on ABC showing him packing up to leave the country.
“It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country great, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech,” He continued seriously, adding: “It was a really good night for Putin and for Polio and for lovable billionaires like Elon Musk and the brothers up in Silicon Valley and all the floundering brain worms who sold what was left of their souls was to bow to Donald Trump.”
Stephen Colbert, his colleague at Comedy Central, was equally disappointed when he began his monologue with an obscenity and said, “Well, damn it. It happened again. After a bizarre and vicious campaign driven by a desperate need to stay out of prison, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election.”
“Yesterday I walked around all day proudly wearing my 'I Voted' sticker. Today I wore my “I question my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity” sticker,” he added.
As a late-night host, Colbert said people often say a part of him must want Trump to win because he gives you so much material to work with. “No no. Nobody tells the guy cleaning the bathroom, 'Wow, you must love it when someone has explosive diarrhea – there's so much material to work with!'” he joked.
He called Trump “a monstrous child surrounded by cowards and cheats” and took a swipe at Trump voters, saying: “In this democracy, the majority has spoken and said they don't care about democracy.”
NBC's Jimmy Fallon mocked that America “got back together with his crazy ex,” a theme also expressed by the Daily Show's Desi Lydic, who lamented that “America decided to get back together with her dirty ex last night.” Going back to your ex instead of breaking the glass ceiling.”
Lydic also expressed the female perspective of what the Liberals see as a fiasco, joking: “Yes, it's official. America elected its first criminal president before electing its first female president. What a day for proud felons.”
“We had two qualified, accomplished women nominated for president, and both times they lost to the worst man in the country,” she added.
“Trump's return to the White House is a major historic comeback for someone who literally never left,” Fallon joked, adding, “Trump could be the first president to be arrested in the White House.”
And from Kimmel: “Donald Trump is like the Emperor from 'Star Wars.' He's old, he's evil and he keeps coming back without any reasonable explanation.”
Late night comedians and indeed the US mainstream liberal media were largely anti-Trump, angering the former president who had tried to promote pro-MAGA comedians.
“Nancy Pelosi was so angry about Trump’s victory that she raised eyebrows in Canada,” joked Greg Gutfield, a new Trump favorite. “He (Trump) won the popular vote by over 5 million votes. This cannot be explained away. “The Democrats can't make their usual excuses, with more 'buts, buts, buts' than a Kardashian family reunion,” he added.
Trump has frequently expressed displeasure with jokes aimed at him, and one report said he questioned with his aides whether satire could be punished. He had a particularly contentious relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, calling him “mediocre” and a “loser.”
Kimmel, in turn, taunted him with a possible prison sentence, at one point reading him a message Trump had sent him while he was hosting the Oscars and joking, “Thank you very much, President Trump.” Thank you for watching. I’m surprised you’re still awake… Isn’t your prison sentence already over?”
Recently, Kimmel joked about Trump's visit to McDonald's, joking, “This is a win-win for Trump… Because working in the fryer will give him a new skill that he could potentially use in the prison cafeteria.”
On Wednesday, he was more reserved, joking: “My only request to President-elect Trump is that he let me share a jail cell with Taylor Swift.”