He wanted the pillow
they used to kill Scalia.
For Trump.
On February 29, 2016 — sixteen days after Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead with a pillow near his head — Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore told his audience to get him that pillow so he could do the same to Donald Trump, then mimed the act on camera. Comedy Central said nothing. The show ran until August. When it was cancelled, the cause was ratings. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner two months later, Wilmore called Trump a media-created monster with “stupid little baby hands.” On his show’s final week, he called Trump a “psychopathic narcissist.” All documented. All on tape.
February 29, 2016: the Scalia pillow joke.
Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016, at a Texas hunting resort. He was found with a pillow near his head. The circumstances sparked conspiracy theories — amplified by Trump himself on Michael Savage’s radio show, where Trump suggested Scalia may have been murdered on President Obama’s orders. No autopsy was performed. The death was ruled natural causes.
Sixteen days later, on February 29, 2016, Larry Wilmore opened a segment on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmoreon Comedy Central by covering Trump’s refusal that weekend to disavow David Duke and the KKK during a CNN interview with Jake Tapper. Duke had endorsed Trump. Trump claimed not to know who Duke was. Wilmore concluded the segment by saying he didn’t want to “give Trump any more oxygen” — adding: “That’s not a euphemism. I mean it literally.”
Then: “Somebody get me the pillow they used to kill Scalia, and I’ll do it — I’ll do it!” Wilmore mimed smothering an imaginary Trump with a pillow on camera. He then paused and added: “I could get in trouble for that, actually!” The segment was reported verbatim by Breitbart, Deadline, Legal Insurrection, and the Inquisitr the following morning. Comedy Central issued no statement. The Secret Service was not reported to have inquired.
“Somebody get me the pillow they used to kill Scalia, and I'll do it — I'll do it!”
Larry Wilmore — The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Comedy Central — February 29, 2016 · Reported by Breitbart, Deadline, Legal Insurrection
April 30, 2016: “stupid little baby hands.”
Two months after the pillow joke, Wilmore hosted the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner — President Obama’s last. Trump did not attend, but two of his sons did. Wilmore dedicated significant time to Trump from the podium, delivering lines reported verbatim in the Washington Post’s full transcript:
Baby hands line — drew laughs from most of the room.
Law & Order line — the room went quiet. Wilmore pushed through.
Turning on the press in the room — the most pointed moment of the night.
“Shallow fool.” “Dangerous.” “Psychopathic narcissist.”
In a Roll Call interview on April 13, 2016, Wilmore called Trump “just a shallow fool” and added: “I have never seen such shallowness put on display and rewarded so much with support from people.” In a Salon interview on April 29 — the day before the WHCD — he said Trump was “a dangerous individual” who was “thoughtless,” “impulsive,” and “shameless.” “The combination of that put together,” he said, “is just a soup of disaster.”
On August 15, 2016 — the same day Comedy Central announced the cancellation of his show — Wilmore delivered his final assessments during the show’s last week. From Alternet, Raw Story, and Fox News Entertainment, confirmed verbatim: Trump was “a psychopathic narcissist who not only has the hands of an infant, he has the mind of one,” and “an existential threat to America.” He also called Trump “downright dangerous” and “just a liar.”
“A psychopathic narcissist who not only has the hands of an infant, he has the mind of one. An existential threat to America.”
Larry Wilmore — The Nightly Show, Comedy Central — August 15, 2016, final week of broadcast · Reported by Fox News, Alternet
Republicans as abused children. Trump as a virus.
Without a show, Wilmore continued. On January 19, 2018, appearing on Real Time with Bill Maheron HBO, he compared Trump and Pence to the Turpin parents — the California couple arrested days earlier for holding 13 children captive in squalor — and compared Republicans to their victims: “Trump and Pence are those creepy white couple and Republicans are those 13 kids or something, you know.” The comment was covered by Newsbusters as an example of weaponizing an active child-abuse case for political comedy.
In October 2020, on his 11-episode Peacock limited series Wilmore, Wilmore called Trump “a virus and disinformation superspreader” during the COVID pandemic and asked whether America would “finally drop him.” America did not drop him in 2020 — Trump received 74 million votes. America re-elected him in 2024 by a wider margin.
The show was cancelled. Not for the pillow joke.
The Nightly Show was cancelled August 15, 2016 — exactly six months after the pillow joke. Comedy Central president Kent Alterman cited viewership: the show “hasn’t connected with our audience in ways that we need it to.” Per NPR, ratings had fallen 40% from the Stewart-era lead-in. The pillow joke was never cited. No disciplinary action was taken. No statement was ever issued.
April 13, 2016: Called Trump “just a shallow fool” — Roll Call.
April 29, 2016: Called Trump “a dangerous individual” — Salon.
April 30, 2016: Called Trump a media-created monster with “stupid little baby hands” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
August 15, 2016: Called Trump “a psychopathic narcissist” and “an existential threat to America.” Show cancelled same day — for ratings.
January 19, 2018: Compared Republicans to the 13 children abused by the Turpin parents — with Trump and Pence in the role of the captors.
October 2020: Called Trump “a virus and disinformation superspreader.” Trump received 74 million votes. He was re-elected in 2024.