A meme floating around the Internet reads: “We used to listen to politicians and laugh at comedians. Now we listen to comedians and laugh at politicians.”

It definitely sounds backwards, but makes total sense when you consider today’s media landscape.  Nightly news programs are almost impossible to watch every night and, partially because they always rotate through the day’s terrible world happenings, a lot of people don’t feel the need to depress themselves with the 11 o’clock news.

Late-night shows have figured out that getting political means sharing the news or an opinion which is often more engaging and memorable than a one-line gag. However, this is not true for all hosts.  ”The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” has shown that viral-for-viral’s-sake comedy can revolutionize the world of late-night TV.  But not every show can be like that, especially when Fallon does it so well.  This leaves a lot of room for politically aware shows.

So here’s a look at late-night TV programs, and how political each show has become:

“The Late Late Show with James Corden”

“The Late Late Show” is by far the least political late-night show.  Fluffy in content and appearance, Corden and his show have a distinct Hollywood flair.  This doesn’t mean he’s worthless as a host, or that his show has no value in the late-night landscape.  His “Carpool Karaoke” videos get millions of views on YouTube, and this softer kind of humor contrasts well with the political feel of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“Conan”

Conan O’Brien, like any other host, makes a fair amount of political jokes every night. However, it’s more due to the prevalence of politics in the media than it is about Conan striving to make his show about politics the way some others do.  ”Conan” is probably the best example of how to allow political views to show in the monologue and interviews, but to keep the audience there for comedy and not the politics.

“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”

“The Tonight Show” dominates the ratings by producing a good chunk of viral content every night.  Sometimes it’s with political guests like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton who were featured as guests twice each since last September. But Jimmy and NBC seem to do so well with the games and situations each celebrity guest participates in that the show does not have to rely on political events to get the biggest audience on TV or 5 million views on YouTube.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Jimmy Kimmel is similar to Fallon in that he does not need politics to make shareable content.  However, he becomes more political at times simply because he’s less of a goofball character than Fallon and Conan.  Like any other host, Kimmel makes sure to include topical political jokes in his monologue, and he even had a great interview with President Barack Obama. Despite that one big moment, Kimmel is definitely one of the less political late-night hosts.

“Late Night with Seth Meyers”

Here’s where it starts getting really political.  Seth Meyers has a longtime feud with Donald Trump, whom he roasted at the White House Correspondents Association dinner in 2011.  He has presidential candidates on the show often, and has created at least three different segments dedicated to political news.  He also has the clearest left-leaning views of any network late-night show.

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

When Stephen Colbert took over “The Late Show,” I thought he would move out of the political world.  He talked about how tired he was of his character from “The Colbert Report,” and it seemed like a perfect time to flip his hosting style. Instead, he decides to almost always dedicate his first post-monologue segment to politics. Like all late-night shows, this is probably true because it’s the heart of election season, but it’s hard to imagine Colbert dropping his inclusion of politics in his show once the election is done with.

“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” / “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore”

I include these two shows together because the 11 p.m. to midnight timeslot on Comedy Central has been political since the rise of Jon Stewart and later on, Colbert.  Their popularity in the social world and brand of political humor pushed the rest of late-night programming to where it is today.

Published on January 31, 2016 at 8:03 pm