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It’s been quite a week for late night in the news. Last week’s transcendent (but not funny and thus ineligible for this column) Addison Rae Tonight Show performance got a great write-up in Paper. Then Aziz Ansari used Jimmy Kimmel Live! to address the Riyadh Comedy Festival controversy and say he was going to donate part of his fee to Human Rights Watch. And people definitely saw it, including people from Human Rights Watch, since the organization said in no uncertain terms that it would not accept that money. Then, again on Kimmel, Jeff Bridges went Full Dude to protest ICE. Why as the Dude and not as a real human? Why not? Protest takes all forms, including character work.
But possibly the biggest argument for late-night TV’s continued relevance was the double duty Taylor Swift did on NBC’s late-night programming as part of The Life of a Showgirl’s album rollout. She appeared on The Tonight Show Monday night with an extended interview airing tonight. And Late Night With Seth Meyers had a full “Tay/kover” (the show’s branding, not mine) on Wednesday. And just like the albums chart and the box office, Taylor is topping this week in late night.
It’s always fun when The Daily Show avails itself of its ensemble-comedy status. Correspondent Jordan Klepper videoed in to host Josh Johnson to give a fun update on The Simpsons classic “That’s good, that’s bad” bit from “Treehouse of Horror III.” This time, Klepper kept throwing good and bad things Trump was going to do to furloughed workers at Johnson, who reacted with just the right amount of frustrated despair to really sell the bit.
A model denigrates her profession in the 1995 documentary Catwalk by saying it’s “not Yalta.” Very little in entertainment requires the level of diplomacy and brinkmanship of the summit that saw the Allies shape a post–World War II peace that has (technically) lasted through today, but Adam Pally trying to get into the mind of Mary Cosby comes close. Cosby is an alien, and Pally is the best xenobiologist I’ve seen since Arrival. He puts those jokers from Alien: Earth to shame. Who could possibly guess that Mary Cosby likes the dentist? Adam Pally, that’s who.
Justine Lupe was kind of an also-ran in the personality Olympics that was Succession. But now that she’s on Nobody Wants This, she’s got a chance to shine, baby! On her Kimmel debut, Lupe told exactly the right story to stick in the memories of the late-night-viewing public. It involved taping her butt cheeks together and how often to moon someone at an award show. It was exactly the right balance of showbiz glamour and relatable body dysmorphia. How appropriate for TLOAS week on late night.
Channing Tatum is, above all things, a dancer. He knows where his body is in space and where other things are in relation to his body. That’s why he crushed Jimmy Fallon in a game to see who could catch the most candies in their mouth. I’d love to see Gene Kelly do this exact challenge, but alas, it can never be. This was a great moment when game met celeb, which is always the trickiest needle to thread on The Tonight Show. Side note: I was also fascinated by Tatum’s strategy for opening Funko pops. That’s confidence.
It’s not that weird to see the same celeb do multiple talk shows in a week. In the old days, this was verboten. Publicists still have scars from the booking wars of the ’90s. Still, Taylor Swift doing two talk shows the same week is a big deal. And sorry to Jimmy Fallon, but Seth Meyers won the interview-off this week. It’s partially down to format: The Tonight Show is bigger, more mainstream, more showy. It made special sets for Swift and let her expound on the album’s themes. She’s been doing that a lot. Late Night gets to be a little more intimate, a little chattier. Meyers had follow-up questions about that time Lisa Bonet’s snake got stuck in Swift’s walls. In an incredibly honest moment, she said the reason she can keep chugging out albums is that she’s “not well-rounded.” To put it in TLOAS terms, Swift on The Tonight Show was Kitty Finlay being glamorous onstage. Swift on Late Night was Kitty backstage, spiraling. And that’s the showgirl we need to see right now.