81% Of Late Night 'Jokes' In 2023 Targeted Conservatives
Media Research Center analyzed each of the 9,518 political jokes aired on late-night television in 2023. The watchdog found that 81% of those jokes targeted conservatives.
To conduct the study, MRC analyzed the following six shows:
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!," "The Daily Show," "Late Night with Seth Meyers," "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "The Late Late Show with James Corden."
Of the six, Kimmel's program had the highest rate of anti-conservative jokes -- more so than even Colbert.
Some 88% of "jokes" Kimmel made last year were aimed at conservatives, including 762 jokes about Donald Trump.
He's obsessed.
Kimmel also made one joke about Aaron Rodgers. You might have heard that Kimmel chastised Rodgers as a "tin foil hatter" for advocating for the publication of names on Jeffrey Epstein's client list:
Now you see why we put "jokes" in quotation marks.
James Corden’s show was the least partisan of the bunch. Only 54% of his jokes were deemed "anti-conservative."
Corden is no longer a host of late-night, however. He departed last April.
In addition to slanting nearly 90% of jokes one way, the same research center last year found that 95% of late-night guests in 2023 were liberals.
It's certainly fine to cater a program toward one political ideology. At times, it's wise I.E. Rachel Maddow. However, late-night shows were not created to be wholly partisan.
Naturally, when you dismiss one side of the country, that side of the country will dismiss you back. Consequently, late-night television is hemorrhaging in both viewers and revenue.
Last year, “Tonight Show,” “Late Night, Late Show,” “Late Late Show,” “The Daily Show,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” combined for $342.4 million in ad revenue.
In 2018, “Tonight Show” generated $334 million in ad revenue alone.
I recently predicted that either ABC, NBC, or CBS would move out of late-night in five years. Charts like below explain why.
The trajectory is not promising:
Of course, cord-cutting and habit changes also played a role in the decline of late nights. But the negative ramifications of the one-sided political "humor" is evident.
Kimmel, Colbert, Fallon, and the rest of their ilk all battle for the same audience: ardent liberals. They left the rest of the country to the likes of Bill Maher and Greg Gutfeld.
Maher and Gutfeld are now the two most influential voices in late night (Gutfeld is technically now in primetime at 10 pm), despite airing in far fewer homes than Colbert and the Jimmys.
What's a shame is that both the right and the left produce so much fodder for content. Shows like "SNL" and late-night should be in a golden age of satire.
They aren't.
Instead, they've become extensions of the left-wing propaganda machine. Oh, and they are not funny anymore.
See for yourself:
Stooge.
(H/T: Media Research Center.)