Late Night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel & others address 'horror' of Israel-Hamas war: 'We didn't even attempt...'

On Monday, Late Night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon took a pause on jokes to address the ‘horror’ of the deadly attack in Israel over the weekend. They also shared their thoughts on the retaliatory conflict sparked after the attack orchestrated by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host called the Middle East “a complex region,” but added that “the complexity of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is immaterial to the horror of this attack.”

He stated, “The world is still in shock over the horrific surprise attack that Hamas launched this weekend against Israel. As of this taping, over 900 people in Israel have been killed, including 11 Americans and an unknown number of civilians and soldiers have been kidnapped, including U.S. citizens. As the conflict continues, nearly 700 people have been killed in Gaza.”  “It is heartbreaking to see violence escalate, and we hope and pray that someday peace is possible,” added the host.

Continuing his monologue, he revealed why it was humanly possible to try and deliver jokes at this moment. “We always try our best to talk about what everybody’s talking about today, but we didn’t even attempt to write jokes about this,” he said. “The human mind simply refuses to do it — even AI refused to do it.”

“We went on to ChatGPT, and this is true, it responded: ‘The Middle East conflict is a serious and ongoing situation that affects many lives, and making jokes about such matters can easily be seen as insensitive, disrespectful or offensive to those who are suffering as a result,’” Colbert read to the audience. “I, for one, want to commend our future robot overlords. That is a rare show of humanity from something that can’t identify which photos contain a traffic light.”

Sharing his statement of solidarity with Israel, Jimmy Kimmel took a dig at former President Donald Trump and said, “Leaders from all around the world condemned the attack, as did millions of Americans including our super-duper pro-Israel, former President Donald Trump, who immediately found a way to make it about himself. “He wrote, ‘The horrible attack on Israel, much like the attack on Ukraine, would never have happened if I were president. Zero chance.’”

Telling his Jimmy Kimmel Live! audience, “That’s right. If he was president, we’d all be blissfully downing jiggers of bleach. There’d be no war anywhere.”

Sharing a brief statement on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the host told viewers, “I just want to send our love to everyone affected by the attacks in Israel over the weekend. By now we’ve all seen the terrible images coming out of there, and our hearts go out to everyone who’s been impacted.”

“I’m sure you all are aware of the atrocities that were committed against Israel this weekend. They were monstrous and horrific acts of violence,” the Late Night With Seth Meyers host said towards the end of his monologue. “I will not pretend to have any answers as to how to respond to a crisis like this. I will only say that in the moments when we are confronted with such evil, inhumane acts: We are most at risk of losing our own humanity when we are justifiably blind with rage and sadness.