“Trump has already driven journalists crazy. Now he’s driving comedians crazy as well.” — S. Robert Lichter

Nothing makes me long for the vanished era of Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon more than a late evening or two spent viewing the current crop of metrosexual network talk show hosts, all of whom suffer in larger or smaller degree from the malady known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.  21st century late-night has eschewed the type of political humor that used to put you to sleep gently and with a smile on your face in favor of blunt force badinage designed to bring down the orange-haired ogre that they all love to hate.  This is the kind of thing, along with adolescent fart jokes, that seems to go over well with the late-night base, an aggregate audience of arugula chewing millennials who live with their parents, voted for Hillary, and don’t have to get up and go to work in the morning.

…commentators and comedians have [Trump] and his policies in their sights. Among them are the always reliable liberal late-night hosts … [Stephen] Colbert’s (ed. note: pronounced Col-bear, in the foppish manner of the French, rather than the all-American Cole-bert) CBS program has somehow managed to become more biased and more left-leaning than his previous Comedy Central show … Though Colbert promised before debuting as the “Late Show” host that he would be less political — he’s been the most Trump-obsessed of all the late-night hosts … Colbert may be leading the charge for late-night comedians to work nearly all of their material around Trump, but he’s certainly not alone. There’s Seth Meyers, who recently got nice and cuddly with CNN’s Jake Tapper as the two droned on about Trump’s treatment of a CNN reporter at his recent press conference. There’s Jimmy Fallon, who took his Trump routine all the way to the Golden Globes … The treatment of Trump — Colbert suggesting he’s going to kill people is the tip of the iceberg — is in stark contrast to the treatment of the outgoing President Obama. Obama was able to “slow jam” the news with Jimmy Fallon and read “mean tweets” while ignoring his duties as president. (Late-Night Knives Are Out for Trump)

Lord only knows how many viewers the constant Trump bashing has driven away, though rumor has it that midnight ratings for re-runs of “My Mother The Car” have inexplicably spiked.  And as professionals, the late-night hosts seem to be ignoring the comedic gold mine that is the Democrats.  After all, a party that features laugh riots like Maxine Waters (“…the fact that [Trump] is wrapping his arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into Korea…” uh, that’s Crimea, Max), Sheila Jackson-Lee (“Homicide is the leading cause of murder.”), and Cryin’ Chuckie Schumer would seem to be tailor-made for any competent comic.

**CARTOON UPDATE: Can’t forget that lovable pompadoured Irish goofball…**

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