Late-night television hosts told hundreds of jokes in the first week of U.S.-led airstrikes against Iran’s top-level officials and 94 percent of them were not aimed at Iran’s oppressive regime but were about the United States and its allies.
Analysts examined 20 episodes of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from March 2 to 5, finding that 235 out of 250 jokes poking fun at the U.S., while merely 15 were about Iran, Newsbusters reported.
The outlet shared a montage of clips featuring examples of several comedy shows making jokes about the military operation against Iran, known as Epic Fury.
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In total, the comedians have reacted to the airstrikes in Iran by telling 94 percent of their war-related jokes about the United States and its allies — any country that has joined the U.S. military action — the Media Research Center study found.
Newsbusters explained that they defined a war-related joke as “anything related to military operations, comments from supportive commentators or politicians, past statements from administration officials criticizing previous wars, or jokes about Iran’s future.”
In breaking the analysis down, the outlet reported that “the U.S. was by far the most joked about belligerent at 229,” and ‘President Trump was the most joked-about individual at 152.”
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was the second most joked about at 23. Senator and future Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin (14), Congressional Republicans (7), and Senator Lindsey Graham (6) rounded out the top five,” Newsbusters added.
As for the hosts themselves, Seth Meyers reportedly told the most jokes about the U.S. at 52, and was also the only one to have 100 percent of his jokes be about the United States.
Jimmy Fallon told 36 of 37 (97 percent) jokes about the U.S. side, with Jimmy Kimmel mocking the United States 51 of 53 (96 percent) of the time.
Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, landed at 43 of 48 (90 percent), while Jon Stewart and Michael Kosta combined were found joking at 53 of 60 (88 percent) about the United States and its allies supporting the military effort.
When it came to making fun of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was joked about a mere nine times, Newsbusters noted.
Notably, while TV hosts have the right to oppose U.S. military efforts in the Middle East, their unwillingness to poke fun at Iran is curious.
The report pointed out that Stewart made one quip about Iran’s response of bombing its neighbors, and noted Colbert joked about who Iran’s ruling clerics would nominate next.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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