Late night hosts look back on 1 year of COVID-19, joke about Trump's absence from the vaccine POTUS PSA
"Well, guys, today is March 11, and that marks a pretty big anniversary around the world," Jimmy Fallon said on Thursday's Tonight Show. "It was a year ago today that we had our last show with a full audience. Six days later I did the show from home, and six days after that both my kids had agents."
President Biden gave a prime-time speech to commemorate the COVID-19 pandemic's unofficial anniversary and shine light at the end of the tunnel, Fallon said, but there's also "a new PSA calling on Americans to get vaccinated, and it features all the living former presidents — except for Trump."
"Maybe his invite got lost in the mail — because he destroyed the Postal Service," Stephen Colbert said at The Late Show. When COVID-19 officially became a pandemic a year ago, "I think we all remember where we were when we heard the news — because we're all still there," he deadpanned. "The CDC should just have issued a statement that said: 'Your pandemic will end shortly. Please be home between the hours of 8 a.m. and three years from now.'"
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Yes, "it's been exactly one year since the surreal cascade of events led to the shutdown of the country, from the NBA shutting down to Tom Hanks getting COVID, and then of course, as we all solemnly remember, the late-night shows," Seth Meyers reminisced at Late Night. He brought up Tiger King and Love is Blind — and, of course, the hoarding: "Remember that, when there was a deadly, mysterious virus rampaging through the country and instead of face masks, everyone thought the one thing they'd need was toilet paper?"
"It's funny to think back on all the dumb things we did when this started," Jimmy Kimmel said on his "Coronaversary Show." He handed out the first-ever "Zoomy Award" for "Zoom-related mishaps," previewed some pandemic anniversary cards, made a PSA to encourage people to tip their food delivery drivers, and edited Trump into that former-president vaccine ad.
The Late Show also spliced Trump into the PSA.
"It's been exactly one year since we last taped a show with a studio audience," James Corden said at The Late Late Show. "If you'd have told me a year ago that nearly 100 million Americans would be vaccinated for COVID by March 2021, I would have said, 'What are you talking about? They said this will be over in two weeks. All we've got to do is flatten the curve, that's it. When the warm weather comes, it will just disappear.'" Peter Weber
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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.
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