Don’t expect to see former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg at one of the city’s famed comedy clubs any time soon. During Tuesday night’s shouty Democratic presidential primary debate in South Carolina, Bloomberg tried and failed twice to land punchlines amid the crosstalk, leaving actual comedian Stephen Colbert with plenty to mock in the aftermath.
“I really am surprised that all of these, my fellow… contestants up here, I guess would be the right word for it? Given nobody pays attention to the clock. I’m surprised they show up because I would’ve thought after I did such a good job in beating him last week that they’d be a little afraid to do that,” Bloomberg said in the middle of the debate, an awkward aside that referenced his poor showing during last week’s primary event. The joke, as it were, was met with relative indifference from the audience.
“Oh, OK, now I understand why he asks people to sign an NDA after he tells a joke,” Colbert said on The Late Show, which aired live following the debate. “No one wants to remember that.” (Bloomberg has previously downplayed claims of sexual harassment against him as misunderstood stabs at humor. “None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said during the debate last week.)
Later in the debate, Bloomberg was asked about some health policies he enacted as New York City mayor, like banning trans fats from restaurants, and whether voters should expect similar plans were he to become president. “I think what’s right for New York City isn’t necessarily right for all the other cities, otherwise you’d have the Naked Cowboy in every city, so let’s get serious here,” Bloomberg joked.
Replied Colbert after playing the clip, “Now, for those of you who don’t live in New York City, there’s this crazy man who wanders around the city and will not leave people alone. And that man’s name is Mike Bloomberg.”
But it wasn’t just Bloomberg’s weak stand-up material that drew Colbert’s ire. The late-night host laid into the billionaire candidate for his comments on the controversial stop-and-frisk policy Bloomberg championed as mayor. “I’ve met with black leaders to try to get an understanding of how I can better position myself and what I should have done and what I should do next time,” Bloomberg said on Tuesday.