If you’re a late-night talk show host, how do you cover an event like Beyoncé’s Lemonade? Particularly if you’re a white male talk-show host — which, statistically speaking, you probably are — a demographic whose opinions on the album no one is particularly clamoring for? The answer, of course, is to filter it through whichever brand of comedy is most natural for you. Stephen Colbert first went slapstick, putting on a bright yellow ensemble to smash up his office in slow-motion.
Then he went for winking irony, giving the “white-man-splain†version of the story he knew no one was asking for.
James Corden meanwhile, proved where his comfort zone lies — in drag, high production values, and an impressive number of wigs.
And Jimmy Kimmel went hard at the celeb-gossip angle, explaining the weekend’s Beyoncé–Jay Z–Rachel Roy–Rachael Ray fracas through a series of helpful emoji. The only one missing? Spilled tea.