Late night TV just hit a new low, and it comes from the place you’d least expect.
Be prepared to be depressed.
Comedy fans have long accepted that late night hosts are more activist than clown. The late night landscape is an extension of the Democratic Party. Period.
The jokes flow in one direction – against the Right. Ripe comedy targets like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi skate by because the Kimmels and Colberts refuse to mock them.
Doing so would damage their political brands, and that cannot stand.
Jimmy Fallon mostly stays above the fray. Sure, “The Tonight Show” host isn’t a conservative. Nor does he routinely swat the AOCs of the world.
Still, he prefers wacky viral videos to hard-hitting political gags. He even did a sharp bit mocking Beto O’Rourke’s flailing arms while his fellow comics avoided that angle.
It’s what sets Fallon apart from his peers – a smidge of ideological balance and a heaping helping of buffoonery. It made his “Tonight Show” an occasional oasis from the usual Trump bashing.
Not Tuesday night.
Fallon invited Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg on his show for a telephone sketch. A more accurate description?
A five minute Bloomberg for President campaign ad.
What transpired sounds like Team Bloomberg wrote the entire sketch, down to the exhausted Trump slams. It’s embarrassing, a clumsy attempt to boost the billionaire’s poll numbers. We don’t even get a token self-referential gag at the former mayor’s expense.
You know the faux humility shtick that politicians of both sides do so regularly.
Nothing.
Instead, we’re left with a cheering “Tonight Show” crowd and a series of pro-Bloomberg talking points.
As biased as Stephen Colbert has been for the past three-plus years, this may mark a new late night low in political comedy.
See for yourself:
This isn’t the first time Fallon pulled this kind of stunt for the Democrats. He “slow jammed” the news with President Barack Obama several times, including this fawning attempt to spit polish the president’s legacy.
Fallon also let Obama weaponize his own show to promote the Democrat’s immigration agenda two years earlier.
The Bloomberg “sketch” feels worse, more artificial. Has Fallon joined the Hollywood Resistance? If so, there’s little place left for Red State viewers on late night TV.
None of this would be happening had the media not turned on Fallon following his infamous 2016 interview with Donald Trump.
Fallon engaged with Trump like he would any other guest, going so far as to toussle the mogul’s hair. That sent media outlets into a frenzy. Fallon “normalized” Trump, they shrieked. Fallon eventually groveled for the media’s forgiveness.
Consider this “Tonight Show” embarrassment part of Fallon’s unofficial Apology Tour.
Related: Howard Stern Defends Jimmy Fallon For ‘Messing Up’ Trump’s Hair
A version of this article was also published at HollywoodInToto.com