Dad Energy, Ketchup, and Size Jokes: Late Night Covers DNC Day 3

This is the third in a series of posts chronicling how late night television is covering the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Follow along throughout the week for more updates. Click to read about night one and night two.

Last night was Tim Walz’s time to shine at the Democratic National Convention. And late night was in agreement: he’s got adorable dad energy. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which is broadcasting live each night from Chicago, began with some low-hanging but still fun fruit: a montage of Walz remixed to a parody of Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement.” Just as the Minnesota governor ended the convention’s third evening with his speech, Stephen Colbert closed out his monologue with a comment about the former football coach. “We needed a coach to remind us,” Colbert said, “that this is what locker room talk is supposed to sound like.”

Like Colbert, The Daily Show has also set up shop this week in Chicago. Correspondent Grace Kuhlenschmidt came to the convention with a dream: land an interview with Walz. Sadly, the governor was busy, so Kuhlenschmidt went about the United Center with a series of traps sure to lure a dad like Walz into an interview. She tried to use a stud finder, offered a free copy of Rudy on Blu-ray, and even offered up a free ticket to a Roy Orbison cover band. “Anyone know if there is an L.L. Bean nearby?” Kuhlenschmidt asked in a moment of desperation. 

Colbert, of a course a veteran Daily Show correspondent himself, also took to the convention floor in search of truth. Reprising his character Donny Franks, who was last in Chicago selling hot dogs at Wrigley Field, Colbert talked with the who’s who of Democratic politicians, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to whom he tried to sell some old Joe Biden t-shirts, and strategist James Carville. “Take one less trip to the dehydrator,” he advised Carville. He also chatted with J.B. Pritzker, asking whether the Illinois governor would put ketchup on a hotdog if it meant stopping a terrorist attack at The Bean. Pritzker was swift in his refusal. 

On the first day of the convention, Pritzker took a tour of Chicago bars with Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show. Last night, Klepper was in the host’s chair, recapping the party-like atmosphere of the previous day’s roll call, during which the rapper Lil Jon introduced the state of Georgia. Klepper wondered what it might be like for a child explaining Lil Jon’s music to their mother: “He’s a rapper, Mom. You know, that musical genre invented by Lin-Manuel Miranda.” 

Turning back to our theme of Dad Energy, Klepper also analyzed some of the previous evening’s speeches, including that by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who shared his story of leaving an awkward voicemail asking out the future-Vice President Kamala Harris on a first date. “Has there ever been a guy more named Doug in history?” Klepper asked. “If your name’s Doug, this is who you are.” Klepper then said we can’t expect too much from Doug. After all, he said, political spouses don’t often rile up a crowd. Then he cut to footage of Michelle Obama. “Oh, that’s not a Doug,” he said. “Not an ounce of Doug on it.” 

Klepper then made reference to the “Dick Joke Heard Round The Bean,” the reference to Donald Trump’s obsession with crowd size made by Barack Obama, complete with hand gestures, in his speech. “That’s the second time this summer the Secret Service has failed to protect Trump from a lethal attack,” Klepper said. The show then turned to Correspondent Ronny Chieng for an update from the convention floor on DNC messaging. “The dick jokes are a major attack line,” Chieng said, “and they’re only going to get bigger.”

Meanwhile, the other late night shows continued with business as usual, mixing in some DNC jokes into their monologues. Seth Meyers noted that the club vibes of the roll call did indeed mark an energy shift for the Democrats. “The music for Biden was just gonna be the ‘Game Over’ noise from Mario Brothers,” he said. Filling in for Jimmy Kimmel this week, RuPaul similarly joked about the roll call: “They don’t call it a political party for nothing.” 

On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon began his monologue talking about the speeches by the Obamas. “There was so much electricity in the arena,” Fallon said, “the whole crowd looked like Bernie Sanders.”