Stephen Colbert has been the center of a lot of social media buzz lately. As we covered, CBS nixed an appearance by well-known celebrity and Texas Congressional hopeful, James Talarico. While all the liberal talking heads were screaming 'Trump! Facism!' and Talarico himself was fundraising off of it, it came out that it was more about Jasmine Crockett than Trump.
But that is not what this opinion piece is about. This is my rant about the death of late-night comedy talk shows. Somewhere along the line, the entertainment industry thought we needed liberal lectures more than being entertained and who better to educate us than affluent, white 'elites'?
I think Stephen Colbert's lasting legacy will be how he and his staff taught America to fight racism and strive for diversity. pic.twitter.com/pGToH7X1rN
— NotKennyRogers (@NotKennyRogers) February 20, 2026
I personally believe that two factors led to this decline in quality: the rise of subscription streaming and the resulting media fragmentation.
Subscription services were no longer tied to the revenue of a single show. The same $9.95 per month was allocated to an excellent show but also could fund the show where Hollywood writers wanted to work out their trauma and lived experience for an audience of themselves.
There was a time when we could meet at school or the office on a Monday and all talk about the funny SNL skit or the last episode of 'Happy Days' or 'Friends'. Now that so many avenues of entertainment, from YouTube, Amazon, TikTok, Netflix and podcasts, writers had more latitude to find their niche. While creating niche content should be a wonderful thing, we learned that 95% of the content swam in the same direction like a school of Sardines.
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What Twitter has done for the world is let writers tell us who really are. More than one late-night writer has revealed himself / herself to be fervent left-wing activist with a minor in comedy.
And yes, they've been almost exclusively white. Who better than a pasty liberal to elevate marginalized voices by not actually hiring them?
— TheBiggestOfAllEd's (@wonderlump) February 20, 2026
His legacy will be the poisoning of Late Night Talk Shows, and the killing of its objective non-partisan humor. He deserves only derisive ignominy…
— Marv-Ellis (@marvalous80) February 20, 2026
Good comedy should make you think, not tell you what to think. That comes across preachy and angry: both of which are wet blankets.
I think not. pic.twitter.com/Nn3LIIJzSS
— TheBiggestOfAllEd's (@wonderlump) February 20, 2026
Yeesh!
Honestly he's done a lot for the Cringe Positivity movement.
— Scorpius Jones (@JonesScorpius) February 20, 2026
Now this is chuckle-worthy.
They’re actually quite diverse. They have Maoists, Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyites, anarcho-communists, Che fans, you name it!
— Freedom P. Keaton🇺🇸 (@2k_lightyears) February 20, 2026
The essence of a joke is to make your listener think you're going one way then, boom, go the other way. Or, I guess, call Trump 'Putin's c*ckhoster' because that makes me clap and clap and clap!
— Alex T - (@alex82747) February 20, 2026
Anyway, this was my first VIP piece and bloviation about comedy, which has been a long-time passion of mine. If you made it this far, thank you for making to the end.
