To the dismay of many — but apparently not enough for Comedy Central to have not made the decision they did — The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore was canceled by the network yesterday, with the last episode airing this Thursday. In a statement, Wilmore had used his word to describe the election — the “Unblackening” of the White House — to likewise describe the news about his show. Last night, in his fourth-to-last show, and his first episode following the cancellation announcement, Wilmore showed just what a major shame it is to be losing another hilarious and incisive political commentator — not to mention one devoted to amplifying minority voices.
He began with a bit of a summary of what’s been so special about the experience, saying, “People come up and they never say ‘Hey, nice show.’ They always say, ‘Thank you.’ It’s such a cool thing.”
“When we started the show,” he said, “We wanted to have a conversation on some very tough subjects… Really our show was at its best when the news was at its worst. I’m just so proud that we were able to take on real issues, and hopefully say something powerful while making people laugh on some very dark days.”
Wilmore quipped, “On the plus side, our show going off air has to only mean one thing: racism is solved.”
One of the most annoying parts about the timing is that Wilmore won’t be able to cover the election going forward, and so it seemed he had some large statements he wanted to get out about it while he still has a platform. He spoke of Donald Trump’s statements last week about Barack Obama having ben the “founder” and “crooked Hillary Clinton,” as he calls her, having been the “co-founder” of ISIS. “Obviously I’m being sarcastic with you, to be honest. But not that sarcastic, to be honest with you,” Trump had said.
Wilmore’s hilarious, flabbergasted retort:
‘To be honest?!’ You’re never honest with us! The end of your sentence stated the complete opposite of the beginning of your sentence. Do you have any idea about how confused the middle of your sentence is?!
Wilmore leveled with his audience and repeated the words that need repeating:
Let me be honest with you. Donald Trump has stopped being funny, he’s stopped being outrageous, he’s stopped being politically incorrect. He’s just downright dangerous. And the worst of it is, he’s just a liar. And I don’t want to hear, ‘Hillary Clinton is a liar too.’ That is a false equivalency. Hillary Clinton is a very smart and capable politician who many people don’t trust because she spends too much time lawyering her words so she doesn’t lose votes instead of telling us what she actually fucking thinks. Donald Trump is a psychopathic narcissist who not only has the hands of an infant, he has the mind of one. And I apologize to all infants. So stop comparing the two. Donald Trump is an existential threat to America.
Watch the segment: