Last Sunday was a tragic day for America as a one-man massacre took the lives of 49 at an Orlando nightclub, creating the largest number of mass-shooting deaths to date. Whenever an event like this happens, everyone on the news and social media has something serious to say. However, when it comes to entertaining, pretty much every TV host from Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Anderson Cooper, and James Corden had something to say about it.
This really comes to those TV hosts who usually follow the Tonight Show format of telling jokes about current event at the beginning of the program. This was the case with Jimmy Fallon, who stated: "I, as a new father, am thinking: 'what do I tell my kids'? What do I tell them about this? What can we learn from this? What if my kids are gay? What do I tell them?"
The Late Late Show host James Corden had to essentially make a statement about it at the Tony Awards last Sunday night. "Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, is embraced, and is loved. Hate will never win. Together we have to make sure of that. Tonight's [Tony Awards] show stands as a symbol and a celebration of that principle."
Trevor Noah on The Daily Show talked about how common it is that President Obama has had to give 16 mass shooting addresses during his two administrations. Samantha Bee of Full Frontal didn't hold back as she stated "F**k it, I am too angry for that". She was referring to the post-massacre "love conquers hate" messages that show up after shootings, and then also stated "love does not win unless we start loving each other enough to fix our f**king problems".
Anderson Cooper also got very emotionally choked up as he read all of the victim's names, as well as a few details about each of the victims. He stated that "they're more than a list of names...they're people who loved and were loved. They're people who had families and friends and dreams."
Stephen Colbert also had this to say, and stated something very profound with: "It's as if there's a national script that that we have learned, and I think by accepting the script we tacitly accept that the script will end the same way every time, with nothing changing, except the victims and their families for whom nothing will ever be the same."
At this point, I am going to end this article here, as there are many TV personalities that had a lot to say about the Orlando Massacre. However, just because you don't have your own talk show doesn't mean that your feelings and opinions about what happened last Sunday don't matter.
Honestly, I am in agreement with Colbert on this. I don't want to live in a world where these mass-shootings occur so often that soon, and we go through the same motions whenever they occur.
At this point, all I can ask is how often we want to do this? I don't want mass shootings to become every day, so that everyone will soon have a story about how they were involved in them. I don't want to live in a world where businesses will have to put in new securities just to keep this from happening, and that we as a society embrace them as an illusion of safety.
This is the one time that I really want to hear comments to this one, because there really wasn't a way to write an article like this except to copy quotes from famous people. We at the Gospel Herald want to hear what you have to say. If you think the problem is guns, please leave a comment. If you think guns will solve the problem, leave a comment. If you think anything that you believe can help the problem, start writing now.
