Late-night hosts Monday discussed the surprise best picture win for low-budget drama Moonlight, claiming America has reached “peak blackness”.

On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah spoke to comedian Roy Wood Jr, who explained what the phrase means.

“Peak blackness is a rare metaphysical anomaly that can only occur when an amalgam of black excellence comes together at the same societal intersection,” he said. He then translated: “It’s when a lot of dope black shit happens at the same time.”

With “Moonlight” winning Best Picture at the Oscars, America officially reaches “peak blackness.” pic.twitter.com/B4Ky7Pyol4 — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 28, 2017

He then listed the recent events that have led up to this happening, such as Beyoncé’s pregnancy and the many films with actors of color that were nominated this year. “We are operating at maximum levels of blacktivity that we haven’t seen in decades,” he said. In reference to Jimmy Kimmel’s skit involving tourists meeting celebrities, he joked: “You know Moonlight was winning because a brother from Chicago was taking selfies and touching people’s trophies.”

He also said: “The Oscars were so black, they were turning to Mel Gibson like ‘hey, you just gone sit there or you gone do something?’”

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert started by joking: “I’m La La Land. Sorry, I read that wrong, I’m Stephen Colbert.”

He discussed the dramatic end to the awards which saw the romantic musical accidentally named as best picture before a mistake was realized. “It was the craziest ending to the Oscars since it turned out that Helen Mirren was Keyser Soze,” he said.

When rewatching the clip, knowing what is going to happen, he said: “It’s like watching Titanic except Titanic actually won best picture.”

He added: “I feel bad for everybody in La La Land and the poor Moonlight people. It should have been a great moment for African Americans, but there’s always a catch. Here’s your Oscar but some white folks get to touch it first.”

Making reference of the divisive reaction to La La Land, he joked: “To make matters worse, while they were up on stage, Ryan Gosling explained jazz to them.”

On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host of the ceremony referred to it as “the weirdest TV finale since Lost”.

He added: “You know it’s a strange night when the word envelope is trending on Twitter.”



During the announcement, Beatty’s confusion at the wrong envelope meant that he passed it to Faye Dunaway to read the winner. “Clyde threw Bonnie under the bus,” Kimmel joked.

He went on to say that the original end of the broadcast was set to see him sitting next to Matt Damon, with whom he has a long-running joke feud with. “Whatever confusion there was over what won, Matt Damon lost,” he said. “He was a loser.”

While on stage, during the confusion, Kimmel described his feelings. “I’m feeling bad for these guys but I’m also trying really hard not to laugh, to be honest,” he said.

As he walked off, people asked if it was a prank that he has engineered. “If I’d pulled a prank, I wouldn’t have just had the wrong winner’s name on the envelope, when they opened it there would have been a Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon in the envelope,” he said.