As we hurtle toward the end of 2023, it’s easy to look at the current state of the world and hope that 2024 will bring better news. But Lewis Black is here to warn you not to get your hopes up.
The legendary comedian has never been one to sugarcoat bad news, which is part of what makes his “Back in Black” segments on The Daily Show so popular. On Tuesday, Black took a few minutes to address the inevitable recaps we’ll all be doing—if only in our own heads—of the past 12 months, and to assure viewers that things weren’t so bad.
“If you think that 2023 sucked, I have a little secret for you: You suck,” Lewis shouted at the camera. “You people have no idea how good we had it this year.” Among the many things that Black is grateful for: that 2023 has seemed to be the first year since the pandemic where “things felt almost normal.”
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“Remember the height of COVID? We couldn’t do shit,” Black reminded viewers. “You could die from just going to a party, and not in the fun way—from tainted cocaine. But this year everything was back: schools, concerts, sports, theater.” To back up his point about theater in particular, Black pointed to just how excited Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) seemed to be just to witness a musical performance of Beetlejuice.
“Lauren Boebert was caught jacking off a guy during Beetlejuice: The Musical,” Black said of the Colorado congresswoman’s naughty indiscretion. “And you thought it was distracting when people unwrapped hard candy.”
Another moment Black wanted to pay tribute to was the box office failure of The Marvels, which turned out to have the lowest-grossing debut of any film in the MCU. “At long last, people have stopped watching Marvel movies—and thank God,” he said. “My favorite part of any Marvel movie is the four times I leave to pee… If I’m spending that long in a theater, I better be sitting next to Lauren Boebert.”
Black had some harsh words for Kanye West (“This was the first year in ages that he finally shut the fuck up”), as well as the death of Twitter.
While Black didn't go into any detail about the doom and gloom he sees ahead, Daily Show viewers can probably guess that the upcoming presidential election might be one reason he feels this way. And why he concluded his rant by telling viewers: “As bad as you think 2024’s going to be, it’s going to be worse than that. So take a moment to appreciate the good things.”
For more, listen to Lewis Black on The Last Laugh podcast.
