LOS ANGELES — Late-night hosts pivoted from candidate Donald Trump to President-elect Trump, combining punchlines and audience group counseling after the billionaire’s defeat of Hillary Clinton.

“For years I’ve come out every night and asked how you’re doing, but I’ve never meant it. Tonight I actually mean it. Does anyone need a hug?” Conan O’Brien said in his monologue Wednesday on TBS. Despite divisions among voters, he said, “the optimist in me chooses, today, to be happy that we have fair and free elections at all. It’s an amazing thing. “

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel took viewers through the stages of grief, including denial (“No, the host of the ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ is not our president”) and bargaining (“Maybe he’ll only build the wall waist-high, to keep short people out”) and, finally, acceptance.

Seth Meyers, who had sharply criticized Trump’s campaign on his “Late Night” show on NBC, struck a philosophical tone in hashing over Tuesday’s election.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” host and South African comedian Trevor Noah, called Trump’s win ‘the end of the world’ on Tuesday stating that he’s ‘sh*tting his pants’.

Additional reporting by Ashleigh Klein

– AP

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