Last night, many of the late night show hosts got their first chance to respond to the series of coordinated attacks that took place in Paris on Friday. Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Larry Wilmore, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon and James Corden all voiced their opinions on the attacks that left 129 people dead and injured hundreds more. All condemned the people responsible for the tragedy while they expressed their grief and support for the city and people of Paris.
Stephen Colbert opened "The Late Show" in a special way Monday night. The 51-year-old host had his band, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, perform the French national anthem to honor all the lives lost and destroyed by the attacks. After news of the attacks broke last Friday, Colbert managed to get a few words in at the end of his broadcast, as HNGN previously reported, but he finally got the full opportunity to send a message to the people of France last night.
"New York is a city that sadly knows too well the horror the French experienced on Friday. And we also know there are no words that can reach the depth of their grief and their shock," Colbert said, referencing the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "But we stand with the people of France as a friend and an ally and offer the hope that there is a way through unspeakable tragedy."
Colbert then took the opportunity to thank France for everything the county has done for the United States, including French fries, French kissing, half the continent "at a bargain price" and the Statue of Liberty, "our enduring symbol of freedom," as Colbert put it. The host of "The Late Show" then went through the many way people all over the world were showing their support for Paris.
"Did you get up this morning and not try to kill someone?" Colbert asked. "Then you're on the right side."
"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah began his broadcast Monday night with a sobering and truthful monologue that also included a little comedy. Noah noted that the news of the Paris attacks broke on Friday and even though "The Daily Show" was off, he and his writers still had to "deal with it."
"I guess everyone has to deal with it," he continued. "I think our lives are defined by moments: Dinner with family, taking a nice drive together, friends gathering at somebody's house to watch Ronda get kicked in the neck. And I think the reason it's painful is because, often, terrorism seeks to replace these moments with death and fear."
The South African comedian then went on to remind people that everyone was afraid and that people should try and not focus on the group responsible because "every attack, whether it's Paris, Beirut, Kenya, seems less about a specific group and more about an attack on humanity itself."
Noah also praised the people of Paris and said that out of all the tragedy, there was one thing that made him smile. He pointed out the Parisians many acts of kindness that followed the attacks, which included taxis offering free rides, people donating blood, Twitter users posting messages with the hashtag #PorteOuverteor or "open the door."
"To the people of France, we commend you," Noah said. "Our prayers will be with Paris, our prayers are with the people. But let's not forget, before we fight, to love."
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"Late Night" host Seth Meyers also took a few moments out of his show to address the attacks in Paris. He first spoke of the beauty of Paris and got to the bottom of why he thought a lot of Americans were so shocked by the terror that happened there.
"Paris is a city that so many people associate with love and what happened there was so the opposite of that," he pointed out before he went into a story about how he nearly proposed to his wife there.
Meyers also shed some light on the thousands of Syrian refugees that fleeing their homeland because they experience attacks like the one in Paris on a near everyday basis.
"For those refugees whose life is so difficult right now, I think one of the many - and there are so many sad things about what happened in Paris - but certainly one of them is how much harder life is going to be for those refugees because of this," Meyers said. "So I would just spare a thought for all the people who were effected by these tragic events, and hopefully things will be just a little bit better tomorrow."
Over at Comedy Central, "The Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore also thanked France for all the contributions it has made to the United States.
"We want you to know that our hearts are with you," Wilmore said as he addressed the French people, according to the New York Times. "Look, France, you are our oldest ally. You understand us more than anybody. You gave us our biggest emotions, bling, you even put up with us when we tried to change the name of your delicious fries. You have always had our back. If somebody f--ks with you, they f--k with us, all right."
Wilmore then went on to explain that his daughter's birthday is on Bastille Day, which is eight months away.
"I promised her when she was a girl, for her 18th birthday, I would take her to Paris," he said. "So do what you will Paris, do what you want, but that trip is still happening."
Conan O'Brien ditched his traditional joke filled monologue for a more heartfelt one last night on "Conan."
"We were looking through the paper today," O'Brien said, "and I thought, maybe we should just start the show by saying, instead of doing jokes about the news, just say that our thoughts are with the people of Paris and France, and everybody who's been affected by this terrible tragedy worldwide."
He then quickly lightened the mood and added that it was his job to put on a comedy show, and that was what he was going to do.
"We are in fact a comedy show, as of August," he joked.
Rounding out the entire late night crew was "The Late Late Show" host James Corden, who expressed his sadness like the rest of his peers.
"It's hard to put into words the feelings of sadness, anger, even confusion we all feel at witnessing the horrific scenes that happened in Paris," he said. "It's a city that is full of beauty, of art, of culture - of life - and nothing will ever change that."
Corden told his audience that he was returning home from London to Los Angeles when the news of the attacks on Paris broke. The Brit said that when his plane was landing at the airport he could "see from my window the lights of LAX, all lit in the colors of the French flag."
"It was a wonderful thing to see," he said. "It was a sign of the world unifying behind right over wrong - standing together with the people of France."
Out of all of the late night hosts, Jimmy Fallon was the only one who did not address the Paris attacks in his monologue. Instead, the host of "The Tonight Show" joked about the Democratic presidential debate before he spoke about the tragedy at his desk, according to Rolling Stone.
"What happened last Friday night changed us, and we are different people than we were at four o'clock last Friday. Those shootings and bombings were set out to destroy us and destroy humanity, but guess what? It backfired. Because instead those events brought us all even closer together."
