May 16’s episode of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore opened with the segment Backlash 2016: The Unblackening. This particular Backlash zoomed in on Trump, specifically on controversy surrounding his treatment of women. Wilmore took his viewers through a few accusations of harassment in the news and social media. Trump, however, continued to deny the allegations, calling them slander. Meanwhile, Wilmore remained hilariously flabbergasted with both the media response and Trump.
From there, Wilmore moved on to another accusation against Trump: rumors that he used to pose as his own publicist in the '80s and '90s, which he denies. Wilmore used this opportunity to point out the amount of times he has posed as his fellow candidates, such as Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton, during his campaign. He pushed the subject further, asserting that Trump’s entire campaign has just been a giant impersonation of a real campaign, cutting to a small, but quirky skit where a cast member of the show, posing as Trump, attempted to impersonate famous characters and celebrities with Wilmore.
In the second part of the show, Wilmore commented on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar famed as the site of 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement. Specifically, he informed the audience that the Stonewall Inn is in the works of becoming a monument, making it the first monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights.
While Wilmore appeared to be happy with the news, he couldn’t resist cracking a joke or two. The news segment cut to another skit, this one of family camping outside of the Stonewall Inn. The two parents, satirizing a massively uninformed nuclear family, claimed to be camping outside, as they do with all monuments. The son, meanwhile, appeared to be understanding what was going on, begging Wilmore to free him of his parent’s inappropriate behavior.
The final segment of the show featured a talk between Wilmore, Robin Thede, Mike Yard and special guest, Paul F. Tompkins.
Once again, conversations centered on Trump. Specifically, they spoke of Trump’s treatment of women, sneaky sexism, female versus male supports, and how Fox news continues to warn the country away from Trump. While the conversation contained serious political subject material, the guests handled it in a lighthearted manner, making the ending of the show an amiable one.