RIP to the Late Night band. This week marked the end of Seth Meyers’s live studio band, and it is a rootin’-tootin’ shame, because whatever happened to pageantry? One of the few advantages old-school late night has over your average YouTuber is spectacle. Entertainment-insider cred is a huge edge broadcast late-night shows have, in theory, over your Hot Ones or your Chicken Shop Dates. Look at how The Tonight Show uses the Roots for random sound bites. Look at how the Roots accompanied Ariana Grande on “Imagine,†one of the juiciest moments in recent 30 Rock memory.
There’s a world where every spot on this week’s top five is a Late Night With Seth Meyers clip, most of which involve Fred Armisen as the 8G drummer. But that would be petty toward the excellent work other shows did during the DNC.
5. Jason Schwartzman Gets His Ear Pierced Again
Let it be known: This is not the first time someone has gotten their ear pierced on late night. This is not the first time someone has gotten their ear pierced on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. But it is nice that Jason Schwartzman was a game guest and said nice things about Wes Anderson and also got his ear pierced for the second time in New York City. And for those reasons, we must celebrate.
4. The Daily Show Comes Hard for Hillary
This clip has made it on the top five on the merit of a single joke, but that joke is that good. Desi Lydic says Hillary Clinton killed her speech at the DNC, but it’ll be ruled a suicide. Shout-out to making an Epstein joke during such a chill moment for the Democratic Party. Shouter-out to linking Epstein to Hillary, and shoutest-out to girlboss Lydic for being the one to do it. Girlies calling out girlbosses for alleged girlcrime, hell yeah!
3. Prodigal Son Conner O’Malley
The No. 1 best thing Seth Meyers has done with late night (besides being very funny on his own and also being a great question asker in interviews) is let his staff shine. And that extends to letting past writer Conner O’Malley be so fucking weird on Late Night. Like, the audience doesn’t love what happens in this clip because they’re not ready to cast Meyers in a heel role. But Seth’s down to clown, and Conner is down to provide condoms for said clowning. These dudes lock hands Thelma & Louise style and jump off a likability cliff, and for that, we salute them.
2. See How I Rank on Late Night? Very Cutesy, Very Demure
A lot of you bitches would assert yourself higher on the ranking. Not mindful! But seriously, why did Jimmy Kimmel Live! consign thought leader and demure server of c- - - Jools Lebron to the side of the stage? She was posted up next to Guillermo when she should have been face-to-face with RuPaul.
1. Jenna Ortega Steals the Show
Jenna Ortega negs Jimmy Fallon so thoroughly in this iteration of “True Confessions†that, for a moment, I thought they should abandon the game completely. But then I thought, No, this is still a fun bit. But Ortega sawed through Fallon like some sort of Monty Python–level lumberjack. He’s so mad she’s unfooled by the (admittedly great) yarn he spins. Every word was like knives, and every knife was like a chainsaw. Also, how chummy she was with Catherine O’Hara? Baller. Point is, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice drops September 6.
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