Jimmy Kimmel
Late-night hosts enjoyed Barack Obama’s return to the White House on Tuesday, his first visit since the grim January morning in 2017 when he departed it with the newly elected Donald Trump. “That’s really gotta bother Trump,” Jimmy Kimmel said of the visit. “All these lies and schemes and lawsuits to get back to the White House, and Obama just strolls right in there.”
Obama stopped by to celebrate the 12th anniversary of Obamacare, “and also to help Joe set up his Roku”, Kimmel quipped.
The former president/vice-president duo “managed to strike just exactly the right balance of affection and confusion”, Kimmel continued, cueing up a clip of Obama’s speech in which he referred to Biden as “vice-president”.
“It was like the White Men Can’t Jump reunion at the Oscars,” Kimmel joked.
In other news, conservatives have called for Elon Musk, who bought 9.2% of Twitter for $2.9bn this week and joined its board of directors, to reinstate Donald Trump’s account. The move would be “unnecessary”, said Kimmel, “because Trump has his own super successful media platform”. That would be the much-beleaguered app Truth Social, which is “to Twitter what a broken Sega Genesis is to TikTok”, Kimmel said.
Though the platform launched in February, many users still can’t get on it. “It’s basically an inactive AOL message board right now,” Kimmel said.
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert also commented on Obama’s first visit to the White House in five years. “He was there to promote Obamacare and to get that pack of smokes he forgot in the Lincoln bedroom,” the host joked.
As for Obama opening his speech by calling Biden “vice-president”, which he quickly called a joke – “it’s funny,” said Colbert. Although “I’m not sure if I buy that was a joke. I think he went up there and the first thing he said was a gaffe – he and Biden have more in common than we thought.”
Obama was ostensibly visiting to celebrate Biden’s signing of an executive order to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but there’s speculation that the visit was intended as a boost for Democrats as Biden’s approval ratings slide. “OK, I understand that theory,” said Colbert, “but isn’t that like trying to get the spark going with your wife by inviting her sexy old boyfriend that broke up with her at her anniversary dinner?”
Colbert also touched on Disney’s public opposition to Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” act, a “stupid and hateful” law, said Colbert, which bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
“So in response, Florida Republicans have put Disney in their sights like it was Bambi’s mom,” said Colbert. One representative threatened to take away Disney’s special tax privileges as well as the company’s ability to “act with the same authority and responsibility as a county government”.
“Now, wait a second. Disney has to have the same authority as a government,” Colbert deadpanned. “How else can they arrest and jail the little-known eighth dwarf, Stabby? It’s Florida. You know there’s a Stabby.
“Republicans say they’re against cancel culture,” he added, “but now they’re trying to cancel what they call a ‘woke company’ whose core message, I will remind you, is ‘it’s OK to kiss women while they’re in a drug-induced stupor.’”
