Remember all the jokes aimed at First Lady Michelle Obama?
No? You'd be hard pressed to remember any from "Saturday Night Live" or the litany of late-night hosts. That's hardly problematic.
First Ladies are often off-limits for satirists, either due to their apolitical nature or simple good taste. There's no official rules here, but a modicum of decency and lack of material make First Lady gags rare and unappealing.
Good. Fine. They didn't sign up for mockery in the first place.
That means Jill Biden escaped the late-night landscape, even though she steered her obviously impaired husband through one grueling term.
First Lady Melania Trump has given Team Late-Night even less to work with to date. She's media friendly but mostly shies away from the spotlight. Her fashion sense is north of impeccable. She's as diplomatic as her husband is pugnacious.
There's nothing there-there. Tell that to the late-night hacks.
CBS's former showcase, "The Late Show," hired far-Left actress Laura Benanti to mock FLOTUS repeatedly while the show was losing CBS millions.
In Trump 1.0, Jimmy Kimmel brought on Sacha Baron Cohen to target her. The comic actor's Borat character came back for the occasion, sexualizing Melania Trump in a way that would never happen with other First Ladies.
Not a chance.
Melania Trump is considered fair game because A. She's married to Hitler 2.0 and B. she's a Republican and there are no limits within that category.
Naturally, "Saturday Night Live" tried to connect both Melania and Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, ignoring the fact that there's nothing actually tying them all together.
No matter! It's funny 'cuz he's orange!
Now, it's Jimmy Fallon's turn.
The man who helped steer "The Tonight Show" in a ratings ditch approaches his work as a poor man's Colbert or Kimmel. He's not as mean as those two hosts, but Fallon hits the same targets and avoids mocking Democrats.
It's toothless, not tasteless, but it's kept him securely behind both shows for some time.
This week, Fallon once again targeted Melania Trump and, like Cohen before him, sexualized the First Lady.
Guys, over the weekend, President Trump made a campaign stop in long island, and Melania Trump did not travel with him...yeah. People have noticed that she’s been laying low. In fact, she hasn’t been seen in public for 29 days. Trump heard and was like, ‘big deal, I haven’t seen her in private for two years.
What does that even mean? It's a failed marriage? How would Fallon know? Or anyone? There's no there-there, and that's the crux of political satire. We're living in a golden age of badly behaved politicians, and this is what the NBC showcase finds funny?
Fallon wasn't done.
You never know. Yep, no one has seen Melania. All I know is that it’s going to be crazy when we find out she ran off with Mitch McConnell.
Two GOP targets in one gag? Betcha that "Tonight Show" scribe got a cookie bouquet this week.
No one should be off limits to political jokes. Of course. The lack of balance, however, is dizzying. The inability for hacks like Fallon to call out crazed progressives while targeting FLOTUS is another sign the late-night landscape can't collapse fast enough.
