Stephen Colbert says the RNC is too dark to watch, but Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah still make light

Late night hosts kind of cover the RNC
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Daily Show, The Late Show, Full Frontal)

Stephen Colbert tried something a little different for his live Republican National Convention recap on Wednesday's Late Show — a boycott. "Now I know that by not watching the RNC, I didn't do my job tonight, and I just wanna say: I feel great about it," he said. They don't acknowledge America's 180,000 COVID-19 deaths, Hurricane Laura, or that "heavily armed Rambo wannabes are murdering people in our streets," and "why should we watch their reality show if it doesn't reflect our reality?"

Colbert said he thinks Americans should — and do — care about Trump and his party's serial violations of the Hatch Act and other laws, and offered "a prescription" for anyone "getting too numb to all of this." (It's called "Notnormalzal," and it involves lots of face-slapping.) This RNC is "a multi-headed spineless creature that lives on your fear" for political gain, he said, "but stoking fear is a dangerous game," as the killings in Kenosha illustrate.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

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.