‘Don’t go to Florida’: TV host Stephen Colbert slams state amid spike in COVID cases
Stephen Colbert didn’t mince words when discussing Florida’s current, dismal state of affairs Thursday night.
The “Late Show” host managed to get in a few digs about our handling of spiking coronavirus cases, especially in the Gulf Coast.
In his opening monologue, around the seven-minute mark, Colbert commented on a recent Associated Press article that said health officials were blaming the surge of COVID infections on “unabated tourism” and “a disregard for basic health precautions.”
“Coincidentally ‘unabated tourism and a disregard for basic health precautions’ is also Florida’s state motto,” he said to laughs. Then an altered image with that sentence placed under the state seal flashed across the screen.
The TV personality then cracked that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation for avoiding COVID should be, “Don’t go to Florida.”
After more poking fun, Colbert ended the bit with a picture from the AP story of people by a giant shark structure in front of a touristy looking shop: “If only there was some kind of metaphor for willingly strolling into the jaws of doom!” (Actually, this snap was taken outside the famed Souvenir City in Gulf Shores, Alabama, but we get his drift.)
Florida has long been fodder for late-night comedians during the ongoing pandemic.
Earlier this summer, Jimmy Kimmel likened it to a brutal dictatorship during a spot about the “2021 Python Challenge,” in which wranglers win prizes for capturing invasive snakes in the Everglades.
“In America’s North Korea, the Sunshine State, from time to time, we enjoy taking a look at what’s going on, and tonight we are doing it again in a Gov. [Ron] DeSantis edition of ‘This Week in Florida,’ ” Kimmel ribbed.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 5:27 PM.
