POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

I was doing some research on Trump jokes on late-night talk shows on television, and I happened across this observation in an article published by HuffPost Entertainment in August 2017. It is the short final paragraph of “Stephen Colbert Just Earned His Biggest Ratings Win over Jimmy Fallon,” an article written by Todd Van Luling:

Fallon’s show had initial success by featuring various carnival games with celebrities. Now that a celebrity is turning the world into a carnival game, Colbert’s more satirical brand of humor seems to be resonating more and more.

The observation does not seem any less apt now than it did then. If anything, it seems all the more applicable—and more unsettlingly so.