Late Night Last Week: Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan, George Wallace on Seafood, and More
Every week, Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week. This week, Desi Lydic and The Daily Show look at Trump’s proposal for the takeover of Gaza, George Wallace and W. Kamau Bell make hilarious appearances, Taylor Tomlinson gives her take on rat birth control, and Michael Kosta tackles the rise in egg prices.
Desi Lydic began the February 5 episode of The Daily Show with a promise. No longer, she said, would she become distracted by the constant barrage of policy proposals and staffing changes put forward by the Trump Administration each day. No longer would she merely react to the news of the day. No. She would talk about the issues that she wanted to talk about.
But then she played a clip of Donald Trump proposing that the United States takeover Gaza. Lydic took her script and placed it in a shredder. Cue reprehensible clips of Trump. “He’s effectively advocating for ethnic cleansing,” Lydic said. “Who could possibly be okay with that? “ Cut to clip of Benjamin Netanyahu. “He looks happier than a teenager getting a hand job in the back of a birthright bus,” Lydic said of the Israeli prime minister.
Lydic then played a host of reactions to Trump’s press conference, including from confused Republicans and defensive cable news hosts. One clip included Fox News host Steve Doocy saying that Trump “knows the United States can’t invade another country.” The crowd had a good chuckle at that one.
“Of course, America would never invade another country,” Lydic said. “You can read all about it in Steve Doocy’s American history book, Me Just Got Lobotomy by Steve Doocy.”
On Late Night, Seth Meyers welcomed a comedy legend, and boy did he come out swinging “What the hell happens in your mouth during the night?” George Wallace asked as he sat down on the couch. “I think about two or three o’clock in the morning all the bed bugs get together and say, let’s go take a shit in his mouth.” Meyers later asked whether there was anything else Wallace was thinking about recently. He was ready. “How come the closer you get to the ocean the more expensive seafood is,” Wallace replied.
The great George Wallace also discussed his new sitcom, Clean Slate, in which he stars (and co-created) with Laverne Cox. He also talks about his relationship with late Norman Lear, who pushed him to try something new. Wallace plays Cox’s father, who has not seen her for years, unaware that she has transitioned. “The show is about love, letting people live, be who they want to be,” Wallace said.
Over on The Late Show, Stephen Colber welcomed back W. Kamau Bell, who joined to talk about his new stand-up comedy tour, “Who’s With Me?” More importantly, Bell is also now a semi-finalist in celebrity Jeopardy! Bell shared that on the show, contestants arrive with no knowledge of who they will face. “You show up and you’re like, ohhh Neil deGrasse Tyson,” Bell said.
Colbert then asked Bell for his thoughts on Trump’s return to power. Bell said he was frustrated by the inability of white people (and some rappers) to admit Trump’s racism. “He’s the Lebron James of racism,” Bell said. Spines turn to jelly, Bell said, whenever the topic comes up.
“I mean, I wouldn’t put him in charge of BET but I wouldn’t call him a racist,” he said, doing his best white person impersonation. “I wouldn’t have him make the collard greens for the family reunion but I wouldn’t call him a racist.”
It has long been the position of this column that Taylor Tomlinson consistently delivers the best “traditional” stand-up monologues on late night today. And her Tuesday set was no exception. The After Midnight host began with the topic of “revenge quitting,” a Gen Z trend of just, well, abruptly leaving your job.
“I swear, young people can’t do anything without the media branding it as some new toxic trend,” Tomlinson said. “If Gen Z dies on the job, Boomers will be like, Okay, another lazy life quitter. Back in my day you gave three weeks notice before dying.”
Tomlinson then tackled the news that rats in New York City are now being given free birth control. Shouldn’t this also extend to the people, Tomlinson smartly reasoned. “How dare you make me jealous of rats,” she said. “They get free birth control, they can tolerate lactose. Next you’re going to tell me they’re giving squirrels free dental.”
For Tomlinson, the news sent a clear message to women. “Women have to start being pests,” she said. “Chew through the drywall. Spread disease. Take a shit in the fridge. Whatever it takes for the government to say, We need to start putting Yaz in the Diet Coke.”
Finally, we end with a return to The Daily Show, and one of the program’s best recurring segments, “KoSta Doin’ Business.” Doing his best CNBC host impersonation, Michael Kosta dished some of his best financial advice and responded to the news of Trump’s tariff proposals and rising egg prices.
“What do I gotta do, take out a mortgage just to make an omelet? What do I gotta do, sell my car so I can buy a frittata?” Kosta asked.
“What do I gotta do, pretend to be the long dead husband of the wealthy widow Belvedere, finally back from the Korean war, then one night, in the middle of her sponge bath, I sneak off and write myself into here will but, as I’m forging her name I realize behind all those wrinkles and skin tags lies the gentles soul I’ve ever met. …”
It goes on. Just watch.
Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.