After last night’s shocking presidential election upset by Donald Trump, one thing is for certain: Today is not a happy day for comedy. On his live Showtime election special, Colbert closed out the show with the knowledge that Trump was likely to win, and he tried his best to make sense of the results, calling us “more divided than ever as a nation†after this election season. “So how did our politics get so poisonous? I think it’s because we overdosed, especially this year. We drank too much of the poison. You take a little bit of it so you can hate the other side, and it tastes kinda good and you like how it feels, and there’s a gentle high to the condemnation,†Colbert said before introducing some jokes with this: “Fair warning: Some of these are silly, but in the face of something that might strike you as horrible, I think laughter is the best medicine. You cannot laugh and be afraid at the same time, and the devil cannot stand mockery.â€
Over at The Daily Show, Trevor Noah closed out the show with some sobering but optimistic words of his own. “You can be dejected, you can be sad, but I will say this: Don’t let it turn into fear, because that is the thing that Donald Trump has used to get his side to do something that they never should’ve done. So stay strong, stay positive, and that’s our show for tonight.â€
Watch some more clips from both live shows below: