If the punishment for any given transgression should fit the crime, Trevor Noah is pretty sure justice has already been served in the case of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. After all, as The Daily Show host put it Tuesday night following the Facebook founders testimony before Congress, “Zuckerberg has already experienced the worst punishment of all: he had to spend four hours explaining Facebook to senior citizens.”
Zuckerberg testified before a joint congressional committee on Tuesday regarding Facebooks data practices—specifically, the information the company shared with the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which Donald Trump enlisted to his campaign in 2016. Given these revelations, people understandably wanted answers, Noah noted on Tuesdays broadcast—“and you could tell that because everyone was posting about it on Facebook.”
“I dont know if its just because Ive never seen him with other humans before,” Noah added as he examined footage from Tuesdays hearing, ”but it genuinely looks like Zuckerberg sends a robot version of himself. He looks like hes in Westworld right now; look at that!”
It wasnt just Noah who found Zuckerbergs stolid appearance amusing; it became fodder for a frenzy of jokes on Twitter almost instantly as the hearing unfolded. Still, cyborg-like appearance aside, Jimmy Kimmel quipped that Zuckerberg “defended himself well. He said, Hey, listen. I didnt do this; it was the Winklevoss twins that invented this stupid thing!”
Kimmel added that Facebook, by its own admission, hosts as many as 270 million accounts that either are or might be fake, and are used to spread false information online. “Although, lets be honest,” Kimmel said. “Most real Facebook accounts are used to spread false information online. My husband is wonderful! Yeah, he made dinner one time. Hes wonderful. Congratulations.”
And then there was Stephen Colbert, who noted that hauling Zuckerberg in for testimony was an activity not unlike “bringing a baby to an old folks home—they just cluster around.”
Still, Colbert kept his coverage brief and to the point: “Nerds are awkward; old people dont know how the Internet works,” he said by way of summary. “Well have more on this tomorrow—if they make me.”
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:22 Movies and TV Shows That Will Save Us in 2018
Westworld (Season 2)
HBO is once again hoping youll ignore the big Game of Thrones-shaped hole in its schedule and turn your attention back to the sci-fi mind game that is Westworld. The Emmy-nominated series, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton, is ready to confound you once again in its second season. Until its spring 2018 premiere, take a trip back in time and revisit nine burning questions we still have about the finale.Photo: By John P. Johnson/HBO.
Grown-ish
Yara Shahidi takes the lead in this youthful Black-ish spin-off set to air on Freeform starting Jan. 3, 2018. In this series, Zoey is finally off to college, stumbling through cringeworthy rites of passage like embarrassing herself at a frat party and hiding secrets from her parents.Photo: By Eric Liebowitz/Freeform.
Tis the season to watch a bunch of perfect human specimens fight for tiny gold medallions. This years Winter Olympics will kick off on Feb. 9, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.Photo: By Julian Finney/Getty Images.
The Chi
After breaking out on Master of None and winning a historic Emmy for one of this years best TV episodes, Lena Waithe is ready to claim her spot in the prestige-TV realm. Enter The Chi, her Showtime series about young people coming of age in Chicago, set to premiere on Jan. 7.Photo: By Matt Dinerstein/SHOWTIME.
A Wrinkle in Time
The classic Madeleine LEngle tale is finally coming to the big screen on March 9, 2018, thanks to Disney and director Ava DuVernay. The sci-fi story about a girl tesseracting her way through time to find her missing father will star newcomer Storm Reid alongside stars like Oprah Winfrey,Mindy Kaling,Reese Witherspoon, and Chris Pine.Photo: By Atsushi Nishijima/Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
After some catastrophic ups and downs, Han Solos origin story will finally be revealed to us on May 25, 2018. The Star Wars spin-off stars Alden Ehrenreich as the galactic smuggler and also features Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke playing a mysterious character named Kira.Photo: From Lucasfilm Ltd./Everett Collection.PreviousNext
Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.