Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noahand Seth Meyerseach took several minutes to address Fridays devastatingterrorist attacksin Paris at the beginning of their shows Monday, mixing heartfelt words of support and grief, with a few sweet, necessary jokes.
Colbert who closed his show Fridaywith a touching monolog after learningabout the attacks moved deftly between the two saying, We stand with the people of France as a friend and an ally, and offer the hope that there is a way through the unspeakable tragedy.After which he lauded Frances many contributions to America, including key intelligence on how to put potatoes in boiling oil, my favorite way of kissing, [and] half the continent at a bargain price no take-backs, guys.
Later, Colbert lauded the ways people have expressedtheir support for Paris, even if its a small, ostensibly erroneous gesture likewatching Ratatouille. Is that wrong? No. Is Ratatouille a Frenchfilm? No. Is it a valid expression absolutely! Because watching a cartoon Parisian rat make soup is certainly as valid as anything I will say tonight.
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OnThe Tonight Show, according toThe New York Times,Fallon took a moment at his desk to say,What happened last Friday night changed us, and we are different people than we were at 4:00 last Friday.Those shootings and bombings were set out to destroy us and destroy humanity, but guess what? It backfired. Because instead those events brought us all even closer together.
Noah and Meyers messages were similarly straightforward. The Daily Showhost homed in on the myriad ways Parisians came together in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, like cab drivers turning off their meters to get people home safely and the Porte Ouverte hashtag, an offer to house anyone in need of a safe place to sleep.
This is the most terrifying night in peoples lives and they are opening their doors to random strangers to let them come in, Noah said, before slyly adding: To the people of Paris we commend you I will say you are ruining our cultural stereotypes because the French are supposed to be cold and unwelcoming, and then you go and do these beautiful things. Who do we make jokes about now? Finland?
And onLate Night, Meyersexpressed his condolences through his own connections to Paris, as well as hisregret for being a terribleFrench student in high school (especially since his mom was his teacher). But Meyers also took a moment to shed light on the thousands of Syrian refugees, who are fleeing terror like the world saw in Paris on a near daily basis.
For those refugees whose life is so difficult right now, I think one of the many and there are so many sad things about what happened in Paris but certainly one of them is how much harder life is going to be for those refugees becauseof this, Meyers said. So I would just spare a thought for all the people who were effected by these tragic events, and hopefully things will be just a little bit better tomorrow being, Mardi, French for Tuesday, he added. Nailed it.