While most of the major late-night hosts avoided addressing Saturday's shocking verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, the decision was the main topic on Monday night's Daily Show and The Colbert Report, with the hosts of both shows mocking the outcome of the closely-watched trial.
Both of Comedy Central's late-night satires had been off for two weeks, and, as Daily Show substitute host John Oliver explained, staffers were excited to get back to work until the Zimmerman verdict was announced.
Oliver then lashed out at the decision, the state of Florida and its "Stand Your Ground" law in a segment titled "Wait: What? How Could You Possibly…You've Got To Be Kid…There Is No Way…I Can't…Oh My God" based on his series of befuddled reactions to the verdict.
"How does 2013 Florida have a law that seems cut-and-pasted from 1881 Tombstone?" Oliver wondered.
He also said, "If Florida's laws are so flawed as to let a tragic incident like this go unpunished, what are they going to do about it?" before playing a news clip noting that there likely wouldn't be a change to Florida's gun laws.
Meanwhile, on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert's conservative character proclaimed the verdict a "victory for the rule of law, in that Florida apparently no longer has rules or laws."
He also mocked a clip of Fox News' Geraldo Rivera predicting the women on the jury would convict Zimmerman based on his assessment that if they had seen a tall, hoodie-wearing stranger in their neighborhood in the dark of night, they would have shot and killed him sooner than Zimmerman did.
"Great analysis, Geraldo," Colbert said. "As the Bill of Rights clearly states, the accused shall be tried by a jury of people who'd have done the murder faster."
Colbert then claimed that while America had racial inequality, it's currently a tie, calculating points awarded to blacks and whites based on historical events.
Finally, Colbert said white people should stop being so scared of young black men and black men should stop being so scary, urging the latter to start dressing like Martin Lawrence and Tyler Perry's cross-dressing characters.
"They look harmless," Colbert explained. "I mean, Madea's only been to jail once."
