Many assume that a Donald Trump presidency must be a comedian’s dream; in reality, most comics are as sick of the man and his message as the rest of the creative classes. For those working on topical humor, the idea of four to eight more years of Trump jokes is a nightmare; trying to find new gags about a man who seemingly can’t be brought down is exhausting. So while some comedic voices rose to the challenge of the election-dominated year, others shrank from the difficult political climate.
On the good side, it’s almost hard to believe that Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal is less than a year old; it quickly made itself indispensable in the comedic dialogue. Abandoning the “hold both sides accountable” ethos of Bee’s training ground at the Daily Show, she and her team went hard on Republican politicians and social issues concerning women and minorities. Her energy and fury fueled the show in a way that the rest of late night’s smug-man-behind-a-desk shows could never match, and the country will be better off for her presence on television in 2017 and beyond.
Runner-up for best late-night political comedy goes to Seth Meyers and his Closer Look segments. Drawing from the style of Last Week with John Oliver segments, Meyers addressed big political issues and nonsense campaign controversies as they happened. It was a smart move to attract election junkies and establish himself as the thinking viewer’s late-night host.
But for others, the Trump jokes became too much. The breakout stage show “Trump v Bernie” featured a mock debate between Trump and Bernie Sanders, which originated last fall when both seemed like ludicrous long shots. Anthony Atamanuik’s portrayal of Trump – breathtakingly brutal and eerily accurate – was hilarious at first, but over time, even he seemed to get sick of the baseless bravado and pumpkin-colored skin. By his last “Trump Dump” rally in early November, Atamanuik’s impression had turned into pure disgust at the man who, it turned out, was on the verge of the presidency. Now, he seems to be grudgingly continuing the impression, but his joy at the mocking the soullessness of the president-elect is clearly gone.
Other late-night shows always seemed to find it harder to take on Trump at all – Jimmy Fallon took on a significant amount of criticism for having the candidate on The Tonight Show for a cutesy interview late in the campaign, while Saturday Night Live has been struggling to play catch-up since the ethical lapse of Trump’s bland hosting gig late last year. Clearly not expecting Trump to win, SNL brought on Alec Baldwin to do a twitchy, oddly lifeless impersonation of the man instead of investing in a full-time cast member (Atamanuik auditioned over the summer but didn’t get the gig). Despite the president-elect’s fury at the show’s recent cold opens, the show hasn’t hit him that hard since the election – just because it gets under Trump’s very thin skin doesn’t make it a sharp take.
Luckily on stage, there was much non-political comedy to revel in this year. After a month-long off-Broadway run in 2015, John Mulaney and Nick Kroll took their hilarious Oh, Hello show on a tour of the US before settling into a Broadway residence, which wraps up in January. The appeal of their dysfunctional 70-something characters, who share an Alan Alda obsession and a love of cuh-caine, is hard to describe, but the show, a loving satire of theater with the joke-pace of a standup set, is the funniest thing on the Great White Way.
Uptown, Jerry Seinfeld spent the year performing his monthly Homestead show, and reminding everyone why he became the most famous comedian in the world – absolutely nobody does observational comedy better. The show is a mix of new ideas and the best material he’s been working out since his TV show ceased production. Another highlight of the year was Billy Domineau’s very dark post-9/11 Seinfeld spec script, which went viral over the summer. Seinfeld will be continuing his residency at the Beacon Theater next year, upping his run to two shows per month. So if comedy didn’t exactly save us in 2016, it will hopefully make 2017 a little bit better.
