President Trump is the butt of late-night hosts’ jokes more often than not.
The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University conducted a study on late-night hosts’ jokes and found 455 were told about the president, while only 14 concerned Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Meaning that of the jokes told by comedians Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon about 2020 presidential candidates, 97% were about Trump.
“When Trump’s onstage, everyone else is blacked out,” George Mason professor Robert Lichter said, according to the Associated Press.
Lichter has been studying the cross between late-night humor and politics since 1992. He said comedians typically lean toward jokes about Republicans more than Democrats, with the exception of President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush in 2001.
“I think they will find a way to keep making jokes about Trump, even after he leaves office,” Lichter added.
The data does not take into account the jokes concerning the Trump family or the president’s administration.
Trump was a major inspiration for late-night hosts in 2016 as well but in a more even-handed way. The president was the butt of 78% of jokes, while 22% were about failed presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the study found.
