Kimmel and Colbert take late-night TV live to wring the best jokes from third Trump-Clinton debate

As the country heads into the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election, late-night TV hosts are working overtime to deliver comic relief in real time.

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” all aired live episodes after Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate to give the masses the jokes they so desperately need to get through this election cycle.

On the “Late Show,” Colbert poked fun at Hillary Clinton’s safe answers to questioning about 2nd Amendment rights saying, “Now, if I heard that correctly, Hillary Clinton took the position of ‘toddlers killing people = bad.’ I don’t know where she finds the courage to say things like that.”

But Colbert saved plenty of derision for Donald Trump, as well. In response to the GOP nominee’s claim that he would leave people “in suspense” with regard to whether he would accept the results of the election, Colbert quipped, “Oh, suspense! Democracy is going to end with a cliffhanger! I guess we’re all going to have to wait until November 9th to find out if we still have a country!”

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On “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the host found plenty of punchlines in Trump’s behavior, featuring a segment about how often he is in direct disagreement with his running mate.

“Probably the biggest story of the debate tonight was when Trump refused to say whether or not he would accept the results of the election if he loses,” Kimmel said. “Even though right before the debate started, his running mate, Mike Pence, was on CNN saying that he would.”

Kimmel took this as the perfect opportunity to pitch another debate for the election calendar.

Chris Wallace ran a much tighter ship than moderators in previous debates, something Kimmel pointed out, saying, “This debate was more focused on the issues than the others were. They had very strict rules: no cheering, no clapping, no booing and no answering the actual questions asked.”

Despite the change in tenor, Kimmel was impressed by how succinct Trump managed to keep his interruptions in the third debate.

That being said, there still were enough to pull together a tidy little montage of “Wrongs.”

As expected, “The Daily Show” had plenty of insight on the third debate, as well as some colorful language that prevents us from sharing it here.

Noah had no problem going after Clinton, however, in a very pointed critique.

“From the very beginning we saw that Hillary still has no regard for law enforcement in America,” Noah deadpanned. “This time defying not the FBI, but the fashion police by wearing all white after Labor Day.”

“She looked fly. I’m messing with her,” Noah added.

But, like Colbert and Kimmel, Noah couldn’t help but marvel at Trump’s refusal to commit to the election results.

“I’m sorry, ‘Keep us in suspense’? Am I the only one who was super freaked out by this?” Noah asked.

Judging by the reaction of his late-night cohorts, he was not.

libby.hill@latimes.com

Twitter: @midwestspitfire

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