Late night hosts burn Fox News for flubbing its 'war on Christmas' framing with torched Christmas tree

published 9 December 2021

"The holidays are a great time of year here in New York," Trevor Noah said on Wednesday's Daily Show. "But apparently not every New Yorker has the holiday spirit, because last night, someone set fire to the 50-foot Christmas tree outside the Fox News studios."

"It's not clear how this happened — I mean, it could be an accident, could be arson, could be Santifa," Noah joked. "And unfortunately we can't ask the tree because like all Fox employees, it had to sign an NDA. But for the network that invented the 'War on Christmas,' this turned out to be the best gift that they could have asked for." The Fox & Friends team dedicated a lot of time to the burning tree, though cohost Ainsley Earhardt made some odd, off-brand comments.

"A Christmas tree represents a lot of things, but one thing it definitely does not represent is Hanukkah — I mean, if it did that tree would have had to burn for eight days," Noah said. "That's a weird thing for anyone to say, but especially Fox News, because these are the guys who spent 15 years insisting that we have to say 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Happy Holidays.' And now all of a sudden, the Christmas tree's half-Jewish?"

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"I'm gonna go out on a burning limb and say this is not about Hanukkah," Stephen Colbert agreed on The Late Show. "But on the other hand, maybe it is about Hanukkah, because I have a feeling that Fox will miraculously make this story last for eight days." Co-host Steve Doocy also called the torched Christmas tree a "Holiday tree" — "keep it up Doocy and Ainsley's going to set you on fire," he quipped — and said "it's beginning to look a lot like arson," but police say the man they arrested for setting the fire appears to be homeless and mentally ill. "Oh my God! The fire was set by Bill O'Reilly!" Colbert deadpanned.

No, "the fire is believed to have started because Judge Jeanine Pirro ate one too many rum balls and breathed on a cigarette," Jimmy Kimmel joked on Kimmel Live. But technically, "it's not really a tree that went on fire," he added. "This is a hollow structure that sort of resembles a tree — in the same way Tucker Carlson is a hollow structure that sort of resembles a human." Also watch Kimmel sell the Hallmark Channel on a "meta" new Christmas movie below.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.