Tonight Show Head Writer Quits Because She's Sick of Trump Jokes

Hello and welcome to Day 4 of Election 2020: It Ain’t Over Yet! As I write this, Decision Desk HQ is calling Pennsylvania for Biden, putting him over 270 votes in the Electoral College, which a lot of his voters think is outdated and racist but they’ll accept this result anyway. Trump won’t go quietly, though, and his fans definitely won’t be slowed down by minor obstacles like math. The 2000 election took over a month to decide, and that was before social media, so we’ll see how long this drags out. And how long it will feel like it’s dragging out.

One person who’s sick of waiting for Trump to go away is the new head writer of The Tonight Show. Remember that show? Johnny Carson used to be the host and everybody watched it, but that was a very long time ago. Lately the show has been struggling to keep its place in a suddenly defunct anti-Trump late-night ecosystem, and now the crew is jumping ship.

Will Thorne, Variety:

There has been yet another change behind the scenes at “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

Head writer Rebecca Drysdale is exiting her role on the show, Variety has confirmed. In a private Facebook message obtained by the Chicago Sun Times, Drysdale explained that it was a mutual decision, after both parties agreed she “was not a good fit for the show…”

She also expressed relief at never having to write jokes or sketches about President Donald Trump ever again, saying that in her view, making fun of the President only serves to amplify his power…

“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,” Drysdale wrote.

If Drysdale doesn’t think she’s a good fit for The Tonight Show, I’ll just have to assume she’s actually funny.

Seems like Jimmy Fallon can’t win. If he gets chummy with Trump and tousles his hair, the #Resistance throws a fit. If he mocks and derides Trump, his own writers quit in protest. What’s he supposed to do? I think Fallon is about as funny as a pediatric oncology ward, but it doesn’t seem fair.

Can you imagine Carson giving a damn who was president? If he ever did, he sure didn’t let it show. He knew that his job was to entertain his audience, no matter who was in power or what was going on in the world.

Now we have stuff like this:

Getting #woke is a comedy killer. It leads to spectacles like Jimmy Kimmel going on national TV and calling everybody who disagrees with him sexist and racist. Yes, Kimmel actually said that. This guy.

I don’t think Trump voters really care to be scolded by that dude.

Here’s some more professional comedy from the late-night funny guys who are humorous:

And here it is, your Moment of Zen pic.twitter.com/0Dwd32AAs5

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 6, 2020

Get it? Because Fox News is bummed that their guy lost. Never mind that they actually called Arizona for Biden before anybody else did, even with the Trump camp screaming bloody murder. They’ve been less biased than the other 99% of the media. But fair enough, schadenfreude doesn’t care about facts.

What are these late-night guys gonna do without Trump? I predict they’ll just keep on making Trump jokes, because that’s what the audience wants. Hell, Letterman was still making the same old Dick Cheney jokes well into the Obama administration.

And maybe they’ll poke gentle fun at Biden’s increasingly obvious dementia. You might see skits like this:

“Mr. Biden, wake up, they just called Pennsylvania. You won!”
“Hey pal, that’s terrific news. What did I win?”
“You’re the president-elect, sir.”
“I am? I thought I was vice president.”
“You were, sir. Then you ran for president and won.”
“Well, how about that. Can we have pancakes?”

And then they’ll count the days until they get what they really want: