Jimmy Kimmel Vamping Won Late Night This Week

Hey, first week of Trump 2.0. How are you feeling? Bad? I’m guessing bad. Late-night television is also having a bad time. It’s been said over and over and over again, but Trump is bad for comedy. Encroaching fascism and climate disaster is bad for comedy. In the case of After Midnight, climate disaster is impossible for comedy, as the show completely shut down during the worst of the wildfires and only returned this week. Welcome back, guys.

These are hard times to joke through. The jokes get repetitive, the audiences get even more claptery and woo-y, and there’s a sheen of panic sweat on everybody. Some of the best moments in late night this week were when comedians actually let the fear show. But humor is also the main way most of us do get through times like this. They’re putting tariffs on the bread, so circuses are all we have. Please enjoy the Melania hat jokes, and remember to check your blood pressure every once and a while.

Jesse Eisenberg Lays On the Anti-Charm

Jesse Eisenberg says he’s at his best when everyone is panicking, so this is really his week. Eisenberg went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! ahead of Oscar nominations, and he really laid the anxiety on thick. His movie is about taking a Holocaust history tour, and because he feels too guilty to relax, he really did that as a family vacation. It was refreshing, honestly, to see someone so comfortable with being uncomfortable. And, Jesse, I laughed at the Tay-Sachs joke. It was me and one guy in the Kimmel audience, but we liked it.

A Neologism Drops on The Daily Show

Bookers of late night, get Brooke Harrington on your show! She was such a delightful Daily Show guest and coined the term “broligarchy,” which is going to be super useful for this particular stage in the death of our country. It’s hard to make observations this upsetting be fun for a talk show. Not since Masha Gessen on Full Frontal have we gotten that particular combo just right.

Mary Lynn Rajskub Freaks Out

Mary Lynn Rajskub wins “Realest Late-Night Moment of the Week,” an award I just made up, for yelling, “Never get older!” in the middle of this After Midnight segment. Taylor Tomlinson talking her down by saying, “We’re doing great, we’re fine. We’re on TV. We’re blonde,” also really made me laugh. This was one of those After Midnight episodes that doubles as a reunion for longtime comedy buds, so everyone was feeling really loosey-goosey. At least, I assume that’s why Brian Posehn whipped a burger out of his jacket at one point. Chill vibes.

Lucy Liu Throws Them Bones

Well, actually just one big bone. You gotta give it to the Tonight Show props department — this huge die they made for Lucy Liu is great. I wonder if it’s weighted. Liu played a game with the Tonight Show audience, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots band, where they guessed her behaviors. What would Liu do? If they got three answers right, everyone wins the lesser Fallon Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (RIP, Late Night Snack, gone but not forgotten). The last question was whether Liu would roll an even or odd number, and would you believe they got it right? Free ice cream for all! Seriously, it was really funny having the final part of this game be random chance and thus completely unpredictable … unless it wasn’t. I want to know if the die was loaded so that everyone got ice cream. I need that to be true.

Jimmy Kimmel Plays for Time

Jimmy Kimmel talking over Carrie Underwood’s audio malfunction was the best inauguration commentary I saw all week. I think because it was so simple. Most news clips get really chopped and screwed on late-night TV, in part so fair-use claims are stronger. But allowing this one to take its damn time — letting the awkwardness play out, talking quietly over the footage like a real news commentator, and showing just how painful it was in the moment — was absolutely the right call. Kimmel has had to host his way through some rough stuff, so this was really in the pocket for him. The bit at the end with Jake Tapper playing along was fun, too.