Late-night television hosts unleashed a torrent of jokes this week, taking aim at Melania Trump’s struggling Amazon documentary and Jeff Bezos’ massive layoffs at The Washington Post.
The comedy goldmine? Reports suggesting bulk ticket purchases inflated the film’s opening weekend numbers.
From suspicious senior center screenings to brutal Rotten Tomatoes scores, comedians found plenty of material in what Stephen Colbert called “the kind of thing they would do.”
Meanwhile, Bezos found himself in the crosshairs as his newspaper shed a third of its workforce.
The Numbers Don’t Add Up
Stephen Colbert wasted no time pointing out the financial absurdity of Melania’s documentary debut. The film reportedly earned $7 million in its opening—a figure that might sound impressive until you consider Amazon’s massive $75 million investment.
And $7 million would seem like a solid opening, until you realize that’s less than 10 percent of the $75 million Amazon spent on the documentary, which includes paying the first lady herself at least $28 million.
Colbert added a signature zinger about Melania’s famously stoic expression, suggesting that kind of payday should “put a smile on your face, if that were physically possible.”
But beyond the jokes, these numbers reveal a potential public relations disaster for Amazon’s streaming ambitions.
Republican Playbook: Bulk Buying Success
Jimmy Kimmel drew parallels to past controversies involving artificial sales inflation, specifically referencing Don Jr.’s 2019 book launch.
If you don’t believe this is the kind of thing they would do, you may be forgetting that, back in 2019, the Republican National Committee bought $100,000 worth of Don Jr’s book to put in swag bags to make it a New York Times best seller.
Kimmel continued the roast, claiming nobody has actually read the book—or even opened it. “It might be filled with blank pages,” he quipped. “We will never know.”
Sources reportedly indicated similar tactics may have boosted “Melania” ticket sales, with blocks purchased and distributed to Republican activists and—in Kimmel’s words—”senior citizens’ homes, which are really the same thing.”
Critical Catastrophe Meets Audience “Love”
The documentary’s reception reveals a massive disconnect between professional critics and reported audience scores.
As of tonight, ‘Melania’ has a score of 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. That is very low. To put that in perspective, that is 1 percent lower than ‘Gigli.’
For context, “Gigli”—the 2003 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy—is widely considered one of cinema’s biggest flops.
Yet somehow, Kimmel noted, audience scores painted an entirely different picture.
That’s just what the loser and hater critics had to say. The audience score is 99 percent positive, which is 1 percent higher than ‘The Godfather.’ And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all.
The stark contrast raised immediate red flags about potential review manipulation—a suspicion Kimmel clearly shared with his theatrical suggestion to “send in Tulsi Gabbard and the F.B.I.”
Bezos’ Other Problem: The Post’s Bloodbath
While Melania’s documentary dominated headlines, Jeff Bezos faced criticism for gutting The Washington Post’s newsroom.
What’s black and white and dead all over? The Washington Post, because today, the WaPo cut a third of its staff.
Colbert’s dark humor highlighted journalism’s precarious state, joking that he pulled his information from Philadelphia’s ABC 6 Action News rather than The Post itself.
You know this is bad, because rather than read that headline from The Washington Post, I pulled it from Philadelphia’s ABC 6 Action News. Yeah, no pressure, ABC 6 Action News, but from here on out, it’s just you and The New York Times.
Kimmel connected the dots with biting sarcasm: “I guess he spent all the budget on ‘Melania.’ Well, well done, Jeff.”
Democracy’s New Motto
Colbert saved his sharpest commentary for The Post’s executive leadership and their justification for massive layoffs.
Now, reportedly, Bezos’ lackey, executive editor Matt Murray, told staff members the company had lost too much money for too long, thanks to declining audiences and sagging subscriptions. I would tell you more of what he said, but it was behind the paywall, and daddy don’t play like that.
The Atlantic reportedly called the situation “the murder of the Washington Post”—language that struck at journalism’s existential crisis.
Colbert twisted the knife with a brutal reimagining of The Post’s famous motto.
Yeah, their masthead used to say, ‘Democracy dies in darkness,’ but now it’s just ‘Democracy: Die! Die! Die!’
Behind the laughs lies genuine concern about media consolidation, billionaire ownership, and journalism’s future in an era of declining subscriptions and strategic silence from powerful owners.
When Comedy Reveals Uncomfortable Truths
Late-night comedy serves as more than entertainment—it often highlights absurdities mainstream news coverage glosses over.
These jokes about inflated ticket sales and manufactured bestsellers point to a pattern of artificial success metrics in political circles. Whether it’s books, documentaries, or social media engagement, the temptation to buy credibility rather than earn it remains strong.
Meanwhile, legitimate journalism struggles to survive as billionaire owners make cost-cutting decisions that threaten democracy’s watchdogs.
Colbert and Kimmel’s monologues captured this moment perfectly—where a vanity documentary project gets unlimited resources while established newsrooms face decimation.
The real punchline? In 2025, separating satire from reality has become almost impossible.