Seth Meyers booked Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as his guest Late at night before Wednesday’s inauguration, but by the time Thursday night came, there was really only one thing he wanted to ask him about.
“Did you know this photo instantly became some kind of memes of the day?” the host asked, holding up the original photo of Sanders sitting alone with both legs and mittens crossed before the ceremony began.
“Not at all,” the senator replied. “I just sat there to keep warm and pay attention to what was going on.”
Undeterred, Meyers showed Sanders some of his favorite examples of the phenomenon that took over social media on Wednesday and is somehow still going strong. “Will your staff show you?” he wondered, holding up one of the Democratic Socialists as the new Samantha Sex and the city.
Sanders chuckled and said, “Yes, I saw them,” before turning to tell the story of the Vermont schoolteacher who made the now iconic mittens and became “somewhat overwhelmed” by the attention she received. He also laughed politely when the host shared his ‘favorite’ one of his sitting next to Forrest Gump and said, ‘I think you’d get up and leave that couch.’
But Meyers wasn’t done yet. “I promise to have a substantive discussion here, I don’t want to waste all my time talking about memes,” he said, before holding up another photo of Sanders with a manila envelope that instantly went viral when a comedian tweeted: “Bernie dressed like the inauguration is on his to-do list today, but not all day long.”
When asked what was in the envelope, Sanders joked, “I’d love to tell you, Seth, but it’s top secret.”
For more, listen and subscribe to The last laugh podcast.