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“The Mooch” is out, and late-night hosts are having a field day.
On Monday evening, hours after it was announced that Anthony Scaramucci would leave his role as White House communications director after only 10 days, late-night hosts bid farewell to “The Mooch” with tributes, jokes and joke-tributes.
The Daily Show took to Twitter immediately to mourn Scaramucci, tweeting simply, “Death to Moochy,” before continuing its ongoing game of “The Celebrity Appresident,” a Bingo-like scorecard that details the comings and goings of the Trump administration.
On air, host Trevor Noah joked about Scaramucci’s quick exit from his post, which was actually weeks before his official start date of Aug. 15. “The guy got fired before the job began! That’s like waking up in the morning, looking in the newspaper and it says, ‘Help wanted — but not you.'”
Noah, joking that Scaramucci’s reign was so short he was “like the song of summer,” quipped that “people are getting fired so quickly that the White House ghost doesn’t know who to haunt.”
Late Night’s Seth Meyers also joked about Scaramucci’s short time in the White House: “Man, that was fast! If Scaramucci was Viagra, it wouldn’t even be time to call your doctor yet.”
In a “Closer Look” on the exit of both former chief of staff Reince Priebus and Scaramucci, Meyers detailed the “super creepy” cabinet meeting in which Priebus “lavished [Donald] Trump with praise,” before moving on to Scaramucci: “114 pounds of alfredo sauce, hair gel and rage.”
Meyers said that sources have reported Scaramucci called Priebus names in private, well before their posts in the Trump administration: “So it’s official, the White House is a middle school cafeteria.”
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“Scaramucci’s last name is longer than his tenure,” joked Meyers. “At this point, getting fired is part of orientation.”
On who could possibly take Scaramucci’s place: “Would it be an air horn with chest hair? A lasagna with a switch blade? A Monster energy drink with googly eyes?”
CBS’ The Late Show played along with #ThingsThatLastedLongerThanTheMooch before host Stephen Colbert announced during his monologue how “shocked” he was “by this breaking newch.”
“‘The Mooch’ is toast. The front-stabber has been back-stabbed,” said Colbert. “He said he was going to fire everybody, and I’ve got to admit, he delivered. That was thorough.” He added, “His going away party can serve what’s left of his welcome cake.”
Responding to a report that new chief of staff John Kelly wanted “more structure, less Game of Thrones, Colbert said that it wasn’t a fair comparison. “With Game of Thrones you have to wait a whole week for a new beheading.”
Colbert was also upset that “The Mooch” was let go just as the Late Show team had finished the cartoon version of Scaramucci, which he briefly showed on-screen. He also sang a farewell version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” for Scaramucci.
The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon invited “GOP Fanboy” and comedian John Early to offer Trump’s cabinet some words of encouragement: “Don’t let those haters get you down! Despite some minor hiccups this past week and every week before that, you guys continue to slay all day!”
On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel noted that Trump has been busy “repealing and replacing his staff,” including Scaramucci, who made “inappropriate” statements to a New Yorker reporter about various White House staffers.
“President Trump reportedly thought those comments were ‘inappropriate’ – and you know, say what you’d like about him, he is a very appropriate person,” joked Kimmel.
“It’s only a matter of time before Trump replaces Ivanka with Tiffany,” he joked, before conducting a “phone interview” with the former White House communications director.
Scaramucci had only been named to his job for a week when he became the subject of national headlines after a profanity-filled conversation with a reporter at The New Yorker, which was later published.
Just days before the infamous interview, late-night hosts had introduced their audiences to “The Mooch,” as he was dubbed, at the same time that Sean Spicer left his post as White House press secretary. Meyers likened Scaramucci to a “human pinky ring,” while several hosts tried their new Sopranos-like imitations of Scaramucci’s voice.
“Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best,” read the statement Monday from the office of the White House press secretary.
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