The NewsBusters report (from the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog) is a year-end analysis of political jokes on major late-night shows in 2025.
It claims that hosts told a total of 7,045 jokes about Donald Trump across six programs: The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and After Midnight (which ended in June).
Key findings from the report:
- Total political jokes analyzed: 13,097 across 818 episodes from January 6 to December 19, 2025.
- 92% of those jokes targeted conservatives (12,011 total), up from 82% in 2024.
Trump was the top target by far, accounting for more than half of all political jokes and over 10 times more than any other figure. Breakdown by show:
- Late Night with Seth Meyers: 1,885 Trump jokes
- Jimmy Kimmel Live!: 1,668
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: 1,458
- The Daily Show: 1,128
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: 851
- After Midnight: 55 (short run)
The report highlights this as evidence of escalating anti-conservative bias in late-night comedy, especially with Trump's second term beginning in 2025, and notes that liberal guests overwhelmingly outnumbered conservatives (nearly 100:1 in some periods).
It has been covered in outlets like the New York Post, AOL, and conservative sites, often framing late-night TV as one-sided "therapy" for the left.
This is part of NewsBusters' ongoing tracking of late-night political humor, which has consistently shown high volumes of Trump-focused jokes in recent years.