Imagine you're a late-night TV comedy writer and you see the following names scroll across your smart phone.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (I was killed during Jan. 6)
- Rep. Jasmine "Code Switch" Crockett
- Graham Platner (where do we even begin?)
- Hunter Biden (where do we even begin, Part 2?)
And your first, second and fifteenth thought is, "What did President Trump say today that we can mock?"
It's the sorry state of late-night comedy, a series of purposely missed opportunities. Yet PlatnerGate forced a few shows to actually address the Democratic candidate.
Now, if Platner had an "R" next to his name he'd be the running joke for month after month. Even after he leaves the political scene, he'd come up a time or three.
Instead, Stewart, Kimmel and co. mostly avoided any mention of Platner.
Mostly.
Stewart. to his ever-lasting shame, compared Platner to the hero in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" in their April interview AKA love fest.
"The Daily Show" brought Platner up last month after a new round of embarrassing headlines surfaced. Except that allowed host Desi Lydic to segue from Platner to a GOP embarrassment, gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx in Colorado.
The pivot was flawless, and the Marx material proved funny and truthful. Still, the Platner pivot proved how captured the show is to its Democratic impulses.
"The Daily Show" just did it again, using Platner to attack the GOP. Huh? How is that possible?
Anything is possible for a late-night propaganda outlet.
Host Ronny Chieng brought up Platner's political collapse, fueled by a second woman accusing the candidate of sexual abuse. Chieng could have skewered the press for ignoring the mountain of scandals already plaguing Platner. Or, he could have mocked Democrats for rallying around such a terrible candidate.
"He's my kind of man," raved Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Instead, Chieng used Platner's downfall to mock his Republican adversary and the GOP in toto.
Obviously, Platner had to drop out once there was credible sexual assault allegations. I mean, at that point, the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins.
The kicker? The show featured an image of Collins and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The evidence against the current Justice was wafer-thin, itself a scandal. The various scandals facing Platner, by comparison, all fit snugly together in a frightening, coherent fashion.
It might be the most dishonest framing you'll see on late-night TV, and that's saying something. Then again, Jimmy Kimmel already beat Chieng to the punch.
Last month, Kimmel also brought up Platner during one of his many scandal-plagued low lights. Ah, finally, Kimmel is going to mock his own party.
Think again.
instead, he essentially did what Chieng attempted on "The Daily Show." First, Kimmel listed off several of the many Platner scandals already in the public. He wasn't done, though.
If Democrats cannot get him into the Senate, word is the Republicans are planning to nominate him for president in 2028.
Yes, a scandal-plagued Democrat is fodder to attack the GOP.
It's bad enough that late-night comedians can't lay a glove on someone like Platner. Their attempt to weaponize his sins against the GOP is a new low. We didn't think that was possible, but here we are.
