Welcome to late-night discourse, where somehow we are still in James Corden yolk omelet-gate??? Sohla El-Waylly made a French omelet on Late Night With Seth Meyers and a huge part of me was like … Is this about Corden?
The thing that won late night this week, Sherman’s Showcase, reaffirms that in many ways the week-to-week goings-on of a late-night show do not matter. This week was fine. Just fine! But as the Time Life recaps of Johnny Carson’s career reaffirm, people mostly remember the hits. Late night happens every week because it’s demanded of the writers, not because they have been struck by the muse. This is an art form designed to be forgotten, unless a smidge of brilliance sneaks out. And that’s, honestly, really fucking cool. Here’s what snuck out this week.
5. Last Week Tonight Brings Prestige Sheen to Looksist Jokes
We’ve all heard the arguments for not making looks-based jokes, and I get it. Hegemony being what it is, and the world increasingly focused toward only the most hegemonically attractive, it feels like a dog pile to point out when someone is weird-looking. But the fact is: Everyone is weird looking. Look at bona fide hottie Timothée Chalamet: He’s a skellington. The human condition is to be weird to look at, or smell, or be around. And when Last Week Tonight called out a right-wing pundit for looking like a balloon head tied too tight on a tiny li’l collar, they were merely pointing out that everyone is ugly. But if you’re ugly on the inside, your outsides should be fair game.
4. Good Vibes on WWHL
It was a party all around on Halloween night’s WWHL, when Pam Grier kicked it with Chris Redd and Andy Cohen. Grier shared Jimi Hendrix stories, Redd spilled tea about maybe kinda sorta being high for his Saturday Night Live audition, and Andy Cohen did a dynamite job of seeming like someone who’s cool with people being high on their live television show. Big “Hey if you’re holding, I’ll partake†energy. Cohen has founded his brand on being a messy bitch who loves drama, which means he can never get canceled for being a messy bitch who loves drama. It’s foolproof.
3. Tooning Out the News Makes Late Night Mean Again
Good golly I missed Tooning Out the News during the early days of the Roe v. Wade overturn era. Nobody throws shade like those cartoon weirdos, and they brought it for a discussion of Roe and the attack of Paul Pelosi with Kirsten Gillibrand. Not sure which part I liked more: when the cartoon men spoke over the cartoon women about potential cartoon abortions, or when the lead cartoon man railed against the 75:25 ratio of right-wing extremist-inflicted deaths versus left wing, and the gnarly left-wing agenda of “75 is a bigger number.â€
2. Freedom for Wally the Cue-Card Guy
Seth Meyers took a minute to celebrate the loosening of COVID strictures on Late Night With Seth Meyers, because it means Wally the Cue Card Guy doesn’t have to use a sponge to wet his finger between cue cards. You can argue about whether loosening of COVID guidelines is justified at this point in time, or whether a loosey-goosey face shield is all that good of a COVID barrier in the first place, but we can all agree that that sponge on Wally’s face shield was weird, and every time any show cut to Wally, a part of our brain was going Hey, what’s with that sponge? Now we know: It was so Wally could flip from card to card with ease, and it’s dead now.
1. Sherman’s Showcase Comes Home
Arguably, Sherman’s Showcase is the best thing to come from the Jimmy Fallon era of late night. Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle worked on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and from there went on to create a gorgeous parody show on IFC. It takes a longview of television, summarizing decades of “Sherman†and his showcase in half-hour chunks. Late night is ephemeral, and Sherman’s Showcase makes fun of that, therefore Sherman’s Showcase on late night is the best thing to happen on late night. It’s funny, it’s designed to remind you that all things are fleeting, and it forces The Tonight Show to employ a cadre of stagehands in black to ferry captain’s hats and the like to the performers. You can pretend you don’t exist, stagehands, but I see you. And I love you.
More From This Series
- Late Night With Seth Meyers Delivers the Best Topical Comedy for This Moment
- Queening Out With the Divas of Late Night This Week
- Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Compassion Won Late Night This Week