WATCH: Stephen Colbert Cartoon Mocks Farmers, Says They'll Be Alcoholic Strippers From Trump's Trade War
On Thursday night, the cold open for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" opened by mocking farmers, intimating that if their finances were hurt by President Trump’s tariffs targeting China, those country-dumb bumpkins would lose their wives to convicts, start stripping for a living, become alcoholics and soon make a living growing marijuana.
The show began by playing a clip from a CNN report that claimed President Trump’s “trade war [is] having a major impact on American farmers after talks with China have halted. Some farmers seem to be losing hope.” CNN then played a clip of a farmer who said he had voted for Trump in 2016 but would not do so again.
The show then played a cartoon titled, “The Farmer in the Dell,” based on the famous children’s song, but this time with new lyrics, accompanied by the visuals in the cartoon:
Tariffs posed by TrumpPut the farmers in a dumpOh no, the derry-o, the farmer’s in a slump.The farmer lost his wife.She wants a better life.She ran off with an ex-convict who rides a bitchin’ bike.The farmer needs a job.He’s stripping while he sobs.Hi-ho the stripper pole, they’re laughing at his knob.The farmer drinks a lot,His liver starts to rot.Chuggitiy-chug the winey-oTime to start growing pot.
As Caleb Howe noted of the cartoon, “It’s oddly focused on stereotypes about farmers or laborers. After the wife leaving for a convict line, I was genuinely surprised they didn’t draw a gap in the cartoon farmer’s teeth. One hardly has to use a vivid imagination to think of other groups of people about whom such a video would generate genuine and widespread outrage.”
For Colbert to be lewd, crude and unfunny is nothing new: in 2017, he infamouslysaid of President Trump, "Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine, You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c*** holster.”
And Colbert loves to mock folks who might have a country twang; remember when he mocked Sarah Palin in January 2016 after she endorsed Donald Trump for president. He ranted:
Sarah Palin just guaranteed Trump the evangelical vote because I think she was speaking in tongues. I just wish she could endorse every candidate, because it would sound something like this: First, let me just tase the part of my brain that understands sentence structure. Okey-dokey. Here we go-key. Greetings and welcomes to all across Americans, you go-getters and toe-tappers. You Motor-City madmen, I’m here to support the next president of all our states …
After that, Colbert had Palin endorse various candidates, including Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Sebastian the crab from the film “The Little Mermaid,” before concluding, “which is why I’m endorsing the next president of the United States, Sarah Palin. This has been my inauguration.”
Farmer video:
