Samantha Bee Mourns the Death of Language

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Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. What do you think of it? What else are you interested in? Let us know: thearts@nytimes.com.

‘Resistance Is Futile’

Samantha Bee thinks the Trump administration may have changed our relationship with words.

On Wednesday’s “Full Frontal,” Ms. Bee adopted the format of a futuristic sci-fi “Dr. Strangelove.” Then she played footage of President Trump, his daughter Ivanka, his lawyer Jay Sekulow and others contradicting themselves or generally disregarding the meanings of certain words.

“Gah! Resistance is futile, government is the deep state, expertise is dangerous elitism. Language is dead!” — SAMANTHA BEE

Then Ms. Bee played a clip of Kate Bolduan of CNN wondering “what does matter” in a world where the president’s words do not.

“And with their sanity shattered, CNN’s top talent turned to nihilism. Wolf Blitzer’s brain was so scrambled, he could only find joy in a turtle. Hello, turtle.” — SAMANTHA BEE

Marco Rubio’s Failed Hug

James Corden seized on a cringe-worthy meme: Marco Rubio was caught on camera on Tuesday in an awkward not-quite-embrace with Ivanka Trump.

“Is that Marco Rubio or a guy going up to greet his very disappointed Tinder date?” — JAMES CORDEN

“Look at Ivanka: That is not how you react when someone hugs you. That’s how you react when you’re waiting for a bumblebee to fly away.” — JAMES CORDEN

“Rubio, he looks like he’s trying to move a rolled-up carpet.” — JAMES CORDEN

The New Philando Castile Video

In a moment of outrage, Trevor Noah told his “Daily Show” audience that seeing dashboard camera footage of the police shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist in Minnesota, “broke me.” The video shows Mr. Castile being shot after telling the police officer that he had a gun in his possession but that he was not reaching for it.

“When a jury of your peers, your community, sees this evidence and decides that even this is self-defense, that is truly depressing. Because what they’re basically saying is, in America it is officially reasonable to be afraid of a person just because they are black.” — TREVOR NOAH

In an off-air chat with the audience, recorded between the show’s televised segments, Mr. Noah went on to say that he considers police violence a form of institutional and historical racism. And he revealed that in just a few years in America, he had been stopped by an officer close to 10 times.

The Punchiest Punchlines (Fireworks Edition)

“Following two special-election losses for the Democratic Party yesterday, one Democratic congressman said, ‘Our brand is worse than Trump.’ ‘Hey, that’s our slogan,’ said United Airlines.” — SETH MEYERS

“They’ve given themselves a July 4 deadline for their bill to gut Obamacare. So, if you’re going to blow your fingers off with fireworks, do it on the 3rd.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, discussing Senate Republicans’ strategy for passing health care legislation

The Bits Worth Watching

“That nasty” counts — as it should.

When the cast of the new film “Girls Trip” did a Carpool Karaoke, they had it all covered without Mr. Corden’s help. (He’s usually one-half of the karaoke group.)

What We’re Excited About on Thursday Night

Kumail Nanjiani stars in the new, largely autobiographical romantic comedy “The Big Sick,” which he wrote with his wife, Emily V. Gordon. He’ll talk about making it on Thursday with Seth Meyers.

Also, Check This Out

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Wesley Morris, critic at large, and Jenna Wortham, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, grappled with the complex, often wrenching process of dealing with the mistrial this week in the Bill Cosby case. They related it to other prominent trials — those in which black men have been both the victim and the defendant. “The feeling of annihilation without repercussions looms larger and larger with each passing season,” Ms. Wortham writes.

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