Late night hosts laugh at the giant ship blocking the Suez Canal, chide Fox News for fake Kamala Harris scandal

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

published 25 March 2021

President Biden is giving his first press conference Thursday afternoon, and "people who normally watch soaps will be like, 'Who's the new beefcake on The Young and the Restless?'" Jimmy Fallon joked on Wednesday's Tonight Show. Biden is facing multiple crises, including a deadly pandemic, he said, "but of course the first question will be, 'Sir, why did you fall three times going up the stairs of Air Force One?'"

"Well, here's something I didn't expect to be talking about: A massive cargo ship got spun around and stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking more than 100 ships," Fallon said. "If you look closely, the ship has a tiny bumper sticker that says 'Student Driver.'"

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"We've all been there, trying to make a U-turn on a narrow street," Trevor Noah sympathized at The Daily Show. "But now imagine how much more stressful it must be when you know that if you back up wrong, you might bump Egypt." The ship is huge — as long as the Empire State Building, he said, but "the crazy thing is, that whole ship is just delivering two AA batteries. Yeah, the rest is just extra packaging."

Now, "if you watch conservative media right now, you know that at this moment, we are living through one of the biggest scandals in American history," Vice President Kamala Harris not saluting the troops upon boarding Air Force Two, Noah said. Seriously, vice presidents are civilians and not supposed to salute military personnel, and presidents returning salutes is "just something that Ronald Reagan started, like the crack epidemic," he added. "In fact, if anyone is disrespecting the military, it's the people on TV talking about the troops like they're crybabies."

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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.