How late-night hosts set aside jokes and got deeply serious about the Orlando shootings
From Jimmy Fallon to Stephen Colbert to Samantha Bee and more.
Between about 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday morning, a shooter armed with two different guns attacked a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, leaving 50 people dead and more than 50 people injured. It was the largest modern mass shooting in U.S. history.
In the wake of the attack, late-night hosts, who typically deliver gags and poke fun at the news, hit the pause button on their regular jokes. Instead, hosts including The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee, and many others approached their respective stages to address the tragedy with somber words.
“There will always be more good than evil.” –Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show
“This is just one bad guy here. Forty-nine good people, and one bad guy. And there will always be more good than evil. When I think of Orlando, I think of nothing but fun and joy and families. If anyone can do it, you can. Keep loving each other, keep respecting each other, and keep on dancing.”
“[Let’s] applaud those acts of love and humanity.” –Seth Meyers, Late Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTi40ekUcV8
“I don’t know who’s been congratulating Donald Trump, but you may want to redirect your congratulations to the first responders or those waiting in line to give blood. They’re the ones that deserve congrats, and they’re not asking for it. I have a feeling Donald Trump’s not giving blood, and if he did, no one would want it, because it probably looks like ectoplasm. So while there were some callously exploiting the tragedy to spread bigotry and misinformation, let’s keep in our hearts the victims and applaud those acts of love and humanity that poured forth in Orlando and across the country.”
“It’s as if there’s a national script that we have learned.” –Stephen Colbert, The Late Show
“It’s as if there’s a national script that we have learned, and I think that by accepting the script, we tacitly accept that the script will end the same way every time with nothing changing, except for the loved ones and families of the victims, for whom nothing will ever be the same. It’s easy, it’s almost tempting, to be paralyzed by such a monstrously hateful act.”
“This is a community that’s never, ever had any prejudice towards anyone.” –James Corden, The Late Late Show
Corden on hosting the Tony Awards the night after the shootings: “The news was so horrific and heartbreaking that you suddenly think — [for] everyone in this room, ‘How will this feel? What will this award show feel like?’ Then very, very slowly, as the day went on, you realize someone somewhere working for the American Theatre Wing just made 3,000 of these ribbons for everybody to wear [in honor of Orlando’s victims]. It’s just a sign of reaching your hands out to anyone who had been affected because this is a community that’s never, ever had any prejudice towards anyone.”
“We shouldn’t allow this to be normal.” –Trevor Noah, The Daily Show
“The president, he made a powerful point: America has to decide if this is the kind of country that it wants to be. And the saddest part is, every time this happens, it feels like America has already decided. This is exactly the kind of country it wants to be because we know how this always plays out. We’re shocked. We mourn. We change our profile pics. And then we move on. It’s become normal, but I’m sorry — maybe it’s because I’m new — but it’s not normal. And it shouldn’t be normal. We shouldn’t allow this to be normal.”
“Love does not win, unless we start loving each other enough to fix our f—ing problems.” –Samantha Bee, Full Frontal
“Well, here we are. Now, after a massacre, the standard operating procedure is that you stand on stage and deliver some well-meaning words about how we will get through this together, how love wins, how love conquers hate. And that is great. That is beautiful. But you know what? F— it. I am too angry for that. Love does not win unless we start loving each other enough to fix our f—ing problems.”
“Nobody I know or have ever met in my entire life should have access to a weapon that can kill so many people so quickly.” –Conan O’Brien, Conan
“I have tried to understand this issue from every side, and it all comes down to this: Nobody I know or have ever met in my entire life should have access to a weapon that can kill so many people so quickly. These mass shootings are happening so often now that lamenting them afterwards is becoming a national ritual. I do not know the answer, but I wanted to take just a moment here tonight to agree with the rapidly growing sentiment in America that it’s time to grow up and figure this out.”
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