‘Late Show’ Goes Live Postdebate, Zings Trump and Clinton
Stephen Colbert’s postdebate live show on Monday night did a very good job of summarizing many of the observations that were pinging around the Internet in the immediate wake of the Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump face-off.
On The Late Show, Colbert spoke about the Democrats’ increasing anxiety going into the debate, looking at polls indicating a tightening race: “Democrats have not been this nervous since Anthony Weiner asked to borrow their phone.” He addressed all the sniffing Trump did during the debate: “He sounded like the coked-up best man in the bathroom at a wedding — he was like Scarface, with more face.” He contrasted Hillary Clinton’s classic debate style versus Trump’s winging-it method: “He may not have prepared, but it looked like he didn’t,” and in the line that probably got the biggest laugh of the night, “Hillary was so prepared, my new nickname for her is Preparation H.”
Related: Debate Review: Trump and Clinton in a Clash of Styles
Over on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah was also live, and he and Colbert told basically the same joke. I’ll give you Noah’s version of it: “We did not have to wait long for the first lie,” then he cut to a clip of Hillary smiling and saying, “Donald, it’s good to be with you.” There’s no shame in doing the same joke; it happens in late-night from time to time. But Noah, overall, didn’t have the sharply defined punch lines Colbert and his writers had crafted. On that same subject of the many times Trump was heard snorting into the microphone, Noah just dealt with it with a wink-wink implication: “I don’t wanna start rumors, but Trump was sniffing a lot. What was that about, Trump?”
Actually, the best line of the night may not have been about Trump or Clinton, but about moderator Lester Holt. It was Colbert’s: “He’s hosted Dateline, so he’s used to rich white people who want to murder each other.”
By the way, Rob Lowe, one of Colbert’s guests, passed up a chance to say who he plans to vote for. He recently joined the cast of Code Black, so he was there to promote the CBS series. “I want everyone to watch, no matter how stupid the voters are.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS. The Daily Show With Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central.
