The Late Show with Stephen Colbert writers have taken their Trump jokes to a new medium.
On their new Jokes About the News podcast, Emmy-winning comedy writers Eliana Kwartler, Michael Cruz Kayne, Asher Perlman, and Steve Waltien are continuing to, as the name suggests, joke about the news, just in a slightly different format.
“If you’re a fan of watching late-night television and laughing about the absurdity of what’s happening,” Kwartler said in her introduction, “or if you just want to get your news from a group of people that sort of has the vibe of three men and a baby, then this is the show for you.”
Since The Late Show’s last episode in May, the Colbert writers have written for the Emmy Awards, performed at the L.A. restaurant that displays The Late Show’s sign, and called out CBS for caving to Trump and canceling the show.
Now, Kwartler, Kayne, Perlman, and Waltien have created Jokes About the News to keep satirizing current events outside of a classic writers’ room setting.
The comedians opened the first episode by discussing the absurdity of Trump’s Republican Midterm Convention, which Trump held on Sept. 9 and 10 in Dallas. Trump claimed the convention was a major success, despite a controversial speaker lineup, absences from most Republicans in competitive House races, and countless empty seats.
“Apparently, last year, two nights before Thanksgiving, Trump called Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and said, ‘Mike, we’ve got to do a midterm convention,’ and Mike Johnson responded, ‘That’s not a thing,’” Kwartler said. “And then Trump responded, ‘Make it a thing.’”
“And look,” she continued, “in fairness, we’ve all gotten high with our cousins in the garage two nights before Thanksgiving and come up with what we thought was an amazing idea.”
They also roasted Trump’s backhanded endorsement of Ken Paxton.
“This is the best endorsement I’ve ever heard,” Perlman said, before they played clips of Trump’s statement during which the president says of Paxton, “I don’t like the way Ken dresses. I don’t really like the way Ken talks. I don’t really like the way he looks. I don’t like it. But you know what I do like? He was the greatest attorney general in the history of Texas.”
“It’s so funny to say that about somebody before you endorse them,” Cruz Kayne said. “To be like, ‘He’s stupid. He smells bad. He shot his d--k off with the BB gun.”
Later in the episode, they talked about Trump’s various construction projects in D.C., joking that the president was leaning too hard into his background as a “guy from the private sector who was allegedly good at building,” Waltien said.
“It’d be like Jimmy Carter getting to the White House and being like, ‘On day one, I’m pledging to make a saltier, crunchier peanut. I will use all the government resources to make the most delicious peanuts,’” he continued. “And we’re like, ‘No, dude. We hired you to do the other thing.’”
At the end of the episode, the hosts thanked listeners for tuning in.
“We had the best time, and actually we already know that you did, too,” Kwartler said. “And we hope to see you again next week when we’re going to make jokes about the news.”
