UPDATE: In September 2025, Colbert and Kimmel were cancelled. After Americans fought back by cancelling their Disney streaming services in protest, Kimmel eventually came back online, but it became clear how quickly freedom of speech can be undermined by a lawless executive branch. Jon Stewart best explained why all this matters: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether. We’re the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones that get sent away first. It’s just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress — to all those things.”

When historians look back at the Trump era that killed our economy, our world standing and nearly everything that was good about America (including American scientific innovation and rule of law based on civil rights), I hope they give American’s top comedians the credit they deserve for calling out Trump’s corrupt cult of cruelty.

Half of America stopped listening to journalists after being hypnotized into ignoring real reporting with chants of “fake news.” Yet Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jon Stewart and even Saturday Night Live continuously highlighted facts and pointed to good journalism in an effort — to yes, laugh at the horrifying lunacy of it all, but ultimately — to explain Trump’s tyrannical instincts are the polar opposite of American freedom and the democratic institutions we built over two centuries.

(Daily reminder: Dictators are always corrupt, and they HATE free speech — especially when people DARE to laugh at them. So these comedians showed real valor.)

The Guardian posts this terrific Late-Night TV roundup, chronicling week after week of the brightest minds in comedy taking on far-right fascism. Here are a few of the best takes on the Trump years: