Late night hosts poke Fox and Rudy Giuliani for their Masked Singer debacle, joke about Canada

published 4 February 2022

The Masked Singer, for viewers unfamiliar with the show, "is like American Idol if all the contestants were minor celebrities disguised as genetically mutated Teletubbies," Trevor Noah explained on Thursday's Daily Show. The singers who are eliminated take off their masks, he said, and in a taping last week, the reveal was "truly, truly shocking."

"America is truly — truly, truly, truly — the greatest country on Earth, because this is the only place in the world where entertainment trumps everything," Noah laughed. Just a year ago, Rudy Giuliani "tried to overthrow America's democracy, and now he's a contestant on a reality show? Is there anyone they won't have on? Like, one of these days a masked singer's gonna take off their head and it's gonna be literally the coronavirus."

Yes, "that is how we got the coronavirus," Jimmy Kimmel joked on Kimmel Live, on the same page. Fox "really should be ashamed of themselves" for booking "the guy who's trying to destroy out country," he said, and they should follow the Rudy unmasking episode with a new show called The Masked Executives, where the Fox executive "who green-lighted this idea takes off the mask and gets voted out of television forever."

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Fox isn't revealing what Giuliani's "swan song was or which animal costume Rudy wore — though it was safe to assume he was a jackass," Stephen Colbert said on The Late Show, but we do know judges Robin Thicke and Kim Jeong left the stage in protest when Giuliani was unmasked — "or they left in terror. I mean, one of the most chilling phrases in the English language is 'Surprise, it's Rudy Giuliani!' Just ask the crew of Borat."

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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.