This Week in Late Night: Seth Meyers’s Ice-Cream Date With the President

Photo: Late Night with Seth Meyers via YouTube

Apologies to Andy Samberg, but this week in late night was too eventful to have a “winner.� Once again, late-night television has become the news. This week Joe Biden gave his most definitive statement on a cease-fire in Gaza, and he was eating ice cream with Seth Meyers while he did it. The optics were terrible. On Twitter, people juxtaposed the image of Aaron Bushnell self-immolating with that of Biden going to town on some bougie ice cream to illustrate the president’s indifference. And before the ice-cream moment even happened, the entire taping was protested by Jewish Voice for Peace. Actress Hunter Schafer was arrested at 30 Rock for participating in the demonstration.

Multiple late-night shows ran segments on the ice-cream moment. Commenting on Biden’s assertion that he thinks a cease-fire could come as early as Monday, Stephen Colbert said, “That’s a very statesmanlike response, and a reason to kindle hope — if he hadn’t said it directly into a scoop of mint chip.� Michael Kosta on The Daily Show said all politicians should start eating ice cream everywhere they go in order to get out of answering difficult questions.

All of a sudden, late night is talking about Palestine. It’s a topic that’s barely been mentioned since October. Last Week Tonight dedicated an episode to the issue in November. There have been questions while interviewing politicians, like when Bernie Sanders went on Seth Meyers last month. And Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff was on WWHL February 19 to combat “antisemitism and islamophobia,� but he talked more about Beyoncé than Gaza. It’s shocking how different the approach has been on Gaza compared to topics like Ukraine, the increase in Asian American hate crimes during COVID, and Black Lives Matter. But now that Meyers is eating ice cream near the news, things are different. It’s almost like having one of their own close to the story gave the hosts permission to talk about something that is really dividing Hollywood.

Meyers also asked Biden about Gaza during the taping — you know, before the ice-cream run. Biden declared himself a proud Zionist and discussed a potential Ramadan ceasefire. That would come later than what he promised at ice-cream time. Meyers discussed that time table in his “A Closer Lick� segment the following day. “Shouldn’t we always be abiding by international law?� he asked. “I’m no legal scholar, but my understanding of international law is that, much like ice cream, it’s available all year round.� Meyers handled the deeply 21st-century experience of becoming news very well in this segment. He chastised himself for doing bad crowd work in the store, acknowledged the surreal Curb Your Enthusiasm–like nightmare he found himself in and didn’t lose sight of the real issue: the massive loss of life happening before our eyes.

Every moment of “normal life� I steal during this crisis feels like getting ice cream with Biden: weird, tone-deaf, broadcast on social media, and frankly, not seasonally appropriate. That’s why I so appreciated what Jon Stewart did with his Monday show this week, in which he dedicated pretty much all of his airtime to the conflict and proposing a solution. While it’s mostly been business as usual on late night, Stewart went out on a limb to talk about it. He was declarative about his opinions in a way very few are on this topic — at least not in public. Clearly he has the power to speak his mind on Paramount’s dime, and I’m glad he used it.