Through the first four weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, the late night comedians have told 761 jokes about him. By contrast, in 2021, during President Joe Biden’s first four weeks in office, the late night comedians told a total of 88 jokes about the new chief executive, according to an MRC study.

That’s nine times more jokes for second-term Trump than for Biden. 

NewsBusters analysts looked at all six daily late night comedy time slots during the first four weeks of Trump’s and Biden’s respective terms starting on January 20. Since 2021, four of these have remained the same: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers. In 2021, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show was hosted by Trevor Noah, but in 2025 it has been hosted by Noah’s predecessor, Jon Stewart, on Mondays, followed by a carousel of Daily Show correspondents the rest of the week. 

Finally, for 2021 analysts observed CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden, but by 2025 CBS had replaced it with After Midnight hosted by Taylor Tomlinson.

2025

As Trump returned to the White House, the comedians have seemingly forgotten about Biden as they have focused on the new president at a 761-38 or 95 percent rate over 88 episodes. Additionally, the political left as a whole has only been joked about 136 times, meaning 85 percent of the jokes about either Trump or liberals have been about the former.

Now that he is president again, there are more jokes about Trump’s policies — mainly trade and some of his unorthodox foreign policy proposals — in addition to the usual voice impressions and jabs about his moral character, love of fast food, and name-calling.

Some sample jokes include Kimmel not knowing how missile defense works: “But, he’s been in office for a week, Jabba the Pizza Hut is already building a Death Star. A dome like that makes sense for a country like Israel, which is surrounded by enemies. It doesn’t make sense for the United States, which is surrounded by Canada and Mexico.”

There was also Meyers’s attempt to defend Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde: “Second, if you think a member of the clergy asking the most powerful person on Earth to have mercy on marginalized people is woke or radical left, that might be a good sign that you’re a sociopath.”

Colbert tried to poke fun at Trump’s inauguration being moved inside, ““It was a frigid day down in Washington, so at the last minute, Trump moved his inauguration indoors. Totally understandable, so, Mr. President, it is with the utmost respect that I say, ‘awww, was the big stwong gweatest pwesident ever feewing a widdo chiwwy? You want hot cocoa wif mawshy-mewwows?’ You weather cuck.”

2021

By comparison, during the first four weeks of Biden’s tenure, the comedians still joked about Trump far more often than Biden at a 385-88, or an 81 percent clip over 95 episodes.

The biggest single chunk of Trump jokes came from Kimmel’s “41 pun salute” that included a musical “tribute” to Trump sung by Rufus Wainwright with such nicknames as “Unhappy Gilmore” and “Mar-a-Lardo.”

Noah celebrated Biden’s inauguration by quipping, “The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and McDonald’s share price in Florida just went way up.”

The decrease in the quantity of Trump jokes was a combination of the ultimately naïve belief that they could focus less attention on him because the country had gotten rid of him and more on other GOP targets such as Trump’s impeachment lawyers, the January 6 rioters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and assorted Republicans who were not onboard with convicting Trump at his second impeachment trial.

Biden’s age provided some of the material for jokes at his expense, although not at the pace that would come later in his presidency. Other areas for Biden jokes included impressions, various bloopers, and his love of trains. Noah, in particular, found his “Robinette” middle name amusing.

However, and in stark contrast to 2025, the comedians were eager to help Biden advance his agenda by pressuring senators like Joe Manchin into falling in line and condemning Republicans for their opposition. Stephen Colbert even held a special where he replayed old interviews with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden.