Michelle Wolf took aim at late-night comedy variety shows — like her own — on “The Break With Michelle Wolf,” sarcastically goofing on comedians earnestly complaining about the state of America.
After her opening, news-laden monologue, Wolf addressed Donald Trump’s announcement of his next nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. The portion of the show, dubbed “Segment Time,” was itself a send-up of comedy shows like “The Break,” “The Daily Show” and other late-night comedy shows that have taken on an even more political bent in the last few years.
“This is the time of the show when we do a viral segment, and since this is a comedy show in 2018, you know one thing for sure: this comedy segment is going to be sincere and angry,” Wolf said as she explained “Segment Time.” “And you can also tell that it will be funny because I’m sitting down, there will be graphics and facts, and it will feel a little bit like school.
“As everyone knows, Trump had to pick a new Supreme Court justice because the old one, Anthony Kennedy, ran away — with our rights!” Wolf continued, adding a note of sarcasm to her delivery. “Anyway, when God takes away a Supreme Court justice, the devil gets to appoint a new one. That’s right, I just called President Trump the devil! The Cheetos devil small hands time to clap!”
At that, the graphic changed from a picture of Trump with devil horns to a shot of a herd of sheep.
Wolf moved on to Trump’s announcement that he would be announcing his Supreme Court pick last week. She jokingly criticized the media for giving Trump exactly what he wanted.
“It’s almost like the media knows he’s pulling the strings but they don’t mind being the tampon,” Wolf said. “Oh, I’m sorry, is a tampon too much for you? How about this: The media knows he’s pulling the strings but they don’t mind being the puppet. That’s right, you probably thought I was only going to call out the orange clown Trump. But I’m also going to call out the liberal media! Wibam, pivot!”
Finally, Wolf took the segment to its natural conclusion: “The Courageous Part.”
“I know we make a lot of jokes on this show,” she said. “But writing jokes is hard. You know what’s easier? An earnest plea. So I’m going to throw my pen down on the desk, I’m going to shake my head in crestfallen bewilderment, and I’m going to tell you that Trump is bad. The news is bad. Which means that I, a comedian, have to do you, the news’, job!”
Wolf dunked on earnest comedians by rattling off a string of catch phrase and buzzwords, while pointing out that the whole thing is a ploy to go viral.
“Children in cages, gun reform yesterday, nevertheless I persisted, this is comedy now, and finally, the meticulously crafted clickable, gif-able, jiff-able takedown that will fix everything, change minds, and save the Republic,” she said, counting down to the final, world-changing message: “F— Donald Trump!”
The segment ended with shots of the audience with the words “standing ovation!” flashing over them, before cutting back to Wolf, with the words “national treasure!” playing across the screen.