Late-night DIY shows kick off Week 2 of lockdown with coronavirus news, child care woes, Trump critiques

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Tonight Show, The Daily Show, The Late Show, Late Night)

last updated 24 March 2020

Like about a third of America, the hosts of late-night comedy shows are locked in their homes to help flatten the coronavirus curve. On Monday night, they started their second week of experimental television from their living rooms.

The Daily Show's Trevor Noah started with a look at "the coronavirus world tour," including Italian mayors berating shelter-in-place scofflaws, Spanish police serenading compliant citizens, and Japan postponing the 2020 Olympics. He also recapped President Trump's hands-off approach to the outbreak and criticized a proposed $500 billion slush fund giving Trump the power to "choose which businesses he wants to survive and which businesses he wants to end up like his businesses." Meanwhile, he said, "many parents across the nation are facing a struggle right now, and that struggle is being stuck at home with their kids." To illustrate, he spoke with correspondent Desi Lydic.

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"Why is it that when there's no quarantine, we all stay at home starting at our screens but now that we're on lockdown, people are like, 'Let's get out and have a picnic'?" Jimmy Kimmel asked. "Donald Trump spent his weekend bragging about the imagined success he's had fighting what he still insists on calling the 'Chinese virus,' even though the result of that is an army of imbeciles blaming people of Chinese descent for the virus," he said. And even when he tried to clean that up, "he somehow manages to be racist while telling other people not to be racist."

Late Night's Seth Meyers, taping in his hallway, ran through how Trump's "negligence" helped lead to 100 million Americans being under stay-home orders, suggested Trump mocked Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) self-quarantine "to remind us that he is an awful person," and marveled at Trump's revealing complaint about media coverage: "How do you have time to watch six networks and read two newspapers? I've been home with two kids for a week, and the only thing I've read is the back of a box of Clorox wipes and the only thing I've watched is my wife roll her eyes at me for not knowing how to make oatmeal."

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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.