Late Night Hosts Bid Farewell to 2012 Election

Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman weigh in on President Obama's re-election and Election Day media coverage

The late night comedy circuit largely took the culmination of the 2012 presidential elections, and news of President Barack Obama’s re-election, in stride. Well, except for Stephen Colbert.

Donning a bathrobe and a backward baseball cap, the "Colbert Report" host began the episode by scolding viewers for "not listening to anything" he said during the lead up to Tuesday's vote.

"I've been bringing you the truth!" a popcorn-wielding Colbert yelled. "And how do you repay me? Four more years of 'hope and change!'"

Bemoaning former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s defeat, Colbert tried to make sense of the “technicality called the Constitution,” and how Obama sealed his bid for re-election.

“Just because Obama won these blue states up here, he’s the president of all of them?” Colbert scoffed, pointing to an electoral map. “Why don’t we elect our president based on square footage?”

Over on “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno said that Obama beat Romney among women by "11 binders," but the outcome of the election wasn’t “all bad news” for Republicans.

“I guess [it] seems depression is covered by Obamacare,” he said.

Leno joked that the president announced he would not raise taxes on the entire one percent – “just Donald Trump.”

He also noted that Vice President Joe Biden has said that he planned to take a vacation now that the race is over.

“You’ve been vice president for four years. That is your vacation.”
 

 "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart wasted no time lampooning conservative media for how it “failed to see what was coming.”

He showed clips of pundits on Fox News declaring Romney the clear frontrunner in the run up to the election, one who would easily take the presidency. But instead of admitting defeat, the clips showed Fox commentators accusing the mainstream media of “favoring Obama,” “working compulsively on behalf” of the liberals and making it “difficult to break through the noise to reality.”

In addition to blaming the “Obama smear machine,” which Stewart wryly noted included the likes of Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich for relentlessly haranguing Romney as a "vulture capitalist," Fox commentators also pointed fingers at Hurricane Sandy.

The storm, according to those pundits, threw a wrench in Romney’s momentum and worked in favor of President Obama because it gave him the opportunity to cast himself as a true leader.

“If only President Bush could have been so lucky as to have a massive hurricane on his watch that he … oh. Right,” Stewart mocked.

Meanwhile, “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon spoofed the concession phone call between Obama and Romney in a final sketch with “Obama” comedian Dion Flynn.

Answering the call with a cheeky “Oh, Mitt! What’s new?” Flynn’s “Obama” proceeded to coax Fallon’s “Romney” out of the doldrums. "Romney" was dejected by the knowledge that he would not be able to fulfill his promise of creating 12 million jobs.

“Buck up, you created one job,” Flynn’s “Obama” said. “ Except, it was for me.”

Unwilling to let the election results get the best of him, “Romney” announced that he was going to “focus on the good times” he had during the elections.

“Remember that first debate?” Fallon’s “Romney” asked wistfully.

“Yep,” replied Flynn’s “Obama.” “You remember, uh, right now?”

Over at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, "Late Show" host David Letterman said in his monologue, "Well, it's over. And as usual, the guy from Kenya won."

Letterman bid a final farewell to Mitt Romney by compiling an "In Memoriam" montage of some of his favorite Romney campaign references.

Set to dramatic background music, the montage included clips of "Romney" dancing "Gangnam Style," and participating in dressage, otherwise known as "horse ballet." 

"You've probably seen them so many times you're sick of them," Letterman said of the doctored clips. "But we thought, 'why not one more time?'"

Contact Us