Not long ago, Will Ferrell flirted with an Alzheimer's comedy based on President Ronald Reagan's second term in office.
Thankfully, good taste prevailed and the "Elf" star publicly fled the project. More recently, the nation suffered through an actual Commander in Chief who lost a step or two, mentally speaking.
That's being kind. The Democrats hid President Joe Biden so aggressively he was like a lousy poll to be covered up at all costs.
Late-night satirists saw the same ol' Joe that we did. And, by and large, they said nothing.
What about Jimmy Fallon? He isn't part of the angry Left late-night alliance. Did he do his due diligence and warn the country about an addled President.
Nope. He, too mostly shied away from the topic. Meanwhile, his show spiraled downward in the ratings. While former hosts Johnny Carson and Jay Leno made "The Tonight Show" a ratings juggernaut with bipartisan yuks, Fallon delivers a milquetoast version of the far-Left rage Kimmel and co. provide on a nightly basis.
Fallon still hits the same targets - Trump, Trump and more Trump - as his late-night peers (save Greg Gutfeld). He also joins them in ignoring Democrats behaving badly. Imagine watching a conga line of DSA candidates slam America and not mustering a single sketch about them?
The writers at Fallon's "Tonight Show" sure can. How many jokes has Fallon told about Graham Platner?
So liberal viewers decided to go with the stiff drink, not the Shirley Temple of late-night TV. Thus, Fallon's limp ratings. Now, with Colbert gone from the scene, Kimmel has picked up some of Colbert's stranded viewers.
Fallon could have course corrected at any time, reverting to the Carson/Leno bipartisan model to see if that might spark a ratings renaissance. It wasn't a sure thing, but it was worth ye olde college try.
Now, two years after Biden left the political scene, Fallon has found the spine to mock the former president.
Courage, as Dan Rather might say!
Fallon teased Biden over the former president's upcoming book, a look back at his four years in office.
The book is about what Biden remembers from his presidency… so it’s three pages.
Get it? The president had dementia while in office, and now, but Fallon was too cowardly to speak Truth to Power. And the country suffered as a result.
Fallon even name-checked another ripe political target that everyone ignored over the last two years.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s kind of a strange book because toward the end it starts being written by Kamala Harris.
It's a little late, Jimmy. The time to embrace the old-school late-night model is gone. Audiences already know what to expect from you four nights a week. That number used to be five, but NBC ordered the show to go dark on Fridays.
Gee, did the low ratings have anything to do with that move?
Either way, Fallon is finally ready to joke about Biden's sad decline. Maybe in a few years, Fallon will crack some newsy jokes about The Twitter Files, the Russian collusion lie or that "Very Fine People" hoax.
Or, he might tell another dozen jokes about President Trump's orange skin. To paraphrase "Dodgeball," It's a bold strategy, Jimmy. Let's see if it pays off for you."
