The head writer of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is out after only seven months on the job.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Becky Drysdale wrote in a private Facebook post that stepping down was a mutual decision. She also took the opportunity to express that she was tired of making Trump jokes and vowed to never write them again.
She later clarified that those two things were not related.
“I am making the decision for myself to never work on, write, or be involved with, another Trump sketch ever again,” Drysdale wrote. “I have landed in several jobs and situations over the last few years, not just ‘The Tonight Show,’ where the project of making fun of Trump, or doing material about Trump, has led to divided creative teams, anxiety, tears and pain. I can’t decide the outcome of this election, but I can make the choice for myself, to vote him out of my creative life.”
“I believe that comedy is a powerful tool. I believe that it can handle anything, no matter how unfunny. I don’t believe that making fun of this man, doing impressions of him, or making him silly, is a good use of that power. It only adds to his.”
Light night talk shows hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers have all leaned hard into Trump jokes over the past four years, often letting it dominate the comedy.
Drysdale expressed that she is glad to be able to simply feel how she feels about the present situation, without having to think how to make it funny.
The post has since been deleted.
Drysdale previously worked on “Key & Peele” and FX’s “Baskets”, and the Nickelodeon Show “All That.” She is an alum of Chicago’s famous Second City comedy troupe.
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