Few doubt that Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and the rest of the liberal “late night” crowd loathe President Donald Trump as much as they say. However, they still don’t write the “clapter” jokes for their respective monologues. That task falls to the writing teams, and we’re now learning why the formerly apolitical “Tonight Show” swung hard left in recent months.
Rebecca Drysdale, Jimmy Fallon’s head writer, is leaving the NBC show. She shared the reasoning behind the departure via Facebook, using the social media platform as a confessional of sorts. Turns out she’s had enough of Trump humor, regardless of how the current election mess plays out.
She started by saying she wasn’t a “good fit” for “The Tonight Show,” a scenario that suited her just fine, apparently. We don’t know all the behind-the-scenes reasons for her exit, but one is crystal clear. The “Key & Peele” alum isn’t tough enough to keep mocking President Trump. That, it seems, is job number one in Hollywood today, to no one’s surprise.
In her Facebook post, Drysdale wrote about her desire to get out of the Trump comedy business. At Tonight and on other jobs she’s had in recent years, “the project of making fun of Trump, or doing material about Trump, has led to divided creative teams, anxiety, tears and pain. I can’t decide the outcome of this election, but I can make the choice for myself, to vote him out of my creative life.”
She later helped explain why liberals weaponize comedy the way they do, and likely why formerly nonpartisan shows like “Saturday Night Live” now feel like DNC fundraisers.
“I believe that comedy is a powerful tool. I believe that it can handle anything, no matter how unfunny. I don’t believe that making fun of this man, doing impressions of him, or making him silly, is a good use of that power. It only adds to his.”
She sounds like a riot, no?
Her complaints still sound familiar. A recent New York Times article interviewing several late night writers captured the predicament they face in the writer’s rooms. Should they even hint at mocking liberals, or defending President Trump in any way, their rabid fan base with let them have it.
I asked if there was a type of joke they had learned not to do.
I was surprised when Jen Flanz, Executive Producer and Showrunner of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” whispered “sarcasm,” but “Daily Show’” head writer Dan Amira readily agreed: “People are so emotionally invested … ” he said, trailing off for a second. “You almost have to not couch things in sarcasm, because people will momentarily wonder if you’re not on their side.”
The New York Times scribe spells the problem out from there, in an article titled, “How President Trump Ruined Political Comedy.”
Consumers of this brand of comedy are so horrified by Trump that irreverence can feel like betrayal. Drysdale won’t have to live with that fear anymore.