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As the year comes to a close, we get wistful here on late-night television. Jimmy Kimmel said it best during his Thursday-night monologue. “It can make you feel crazy trying to wrap your head around these things that are so clearly wrong,” he said. “But when I hear from people who tell me that they watch our show and the shows that my friends and colleagues do on the other channels and that it makes them feel less crazy, it makes me feel less crazy, too.” The main point of late night at this current moment in history is catharsis, and it’s very useful to a lot of folks.
On Wednesday, Stephen Colbert spoke to Kumail Nanjiani, specifically about how he closed his Vulture No. 1 Best Stand-up Special of 2025 Night Thoughts. He tells the audience, “Shit is fucked up, and you’re going to be okay.” Then he makes the audience say it back to him. That’s what we’re doing here on late night. At its best, we’re acknowledging the fucked-up shit while also reaffirming the inevitable okay-ness that is always to be. It’s very Alexander Pope, this thing the talk shows now do. Here’s who kept hope springing eternal this week in late night.
This is one of the best “Clubhouse Playhouse” segments we’ve gotten from WWHL in a while. Kerry Washington performs Mary Cosby’s fart monologue from RHOSLC, and it brings the pathos. Is it because Cosby provides such fecund soil from which a performance may spring? Is it because Washington, a vet of the Shondaverse school of monologues, can make even the most insane stakes emotionally resonant? No, idiots. It’s because farts are funny but also deeply, deeply human. The entire Bravo project is displaying-while-interrogating the self-image of rich women. How better to puncture a performance than with a big ol’ fart?
Because The Tonight Show doesn’t include a star’s entrance in its YouTube clips, the Marty Supreme ballheads (Is that what they’re called? Either way, I’m terrified) appear behind Timothée Chalamet completely without context and completely unacknowledged. It only adds to the surreality of Chalamet earnestly speaking to camera about how Marty Supreme is his life’s magnum opus, how we all need to dream big, how he’s cognizant of all the opportunities he’s been given, and how we should go see Marty Supreme Christmas Day. It’s so true: Marty Supreme Christmas Day. Marty Supreme Christmas Day.
Jimmy Kimmel’s penchant for pranks is well known. His “look at this dumbass” schtick on Hollywood Boulevard is also quite established. But when Mark Hamill gets involved, it’s magic. Hamill stood by his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and punked people like they were on Punk’d. The whole thing lived and died by his likability, and thus, it fucking soared. The man is a national treasure and the best Joker by far. When Hamill referenced his own first gig as a girlfriend of Susan Dey on The Partridge Family, I plotzed.
David Letterman is back on late night all the time. You know what’s exciting and novel? Seeing his bandleader back on the shiny floor. Paul Shaffer backed Darlene Love, alongside Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, in a rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on The Tonight Show. And that rocks. Firstly, because Love needs her Christmas checks; keep ’em coming, or else. Secondly, because it’s huge to see Shaffer backing someone again on late night. He’s an incredible second banana — whether it’s to David Johansen, Bill Murray, the Green Goblin, or in this case, the original queen of Christmas.
Before this “Day Drinking” segment began, I said to my partner, “I’m not sure this is going to work. Sabrina Carpenter’s persona is maybe too controlled to be fun in a day-drinking context.” Well, shut my mouth, because Seth Meyers really rose to the occasion. In some of these segments, he’s the straight man to a more boisterous drunk — your Will Fortes or Lizzos. But if someone needs to be Boo Boo the Fool, Meyers will don the dunce cap forth-fucking-with. Meyers and Carpenter became a perfectly crafted duo, a Nick and Nora Charles for the 21st century. And kudos also to the Late Night props team for burning so many bridges with the undrinkable novelty liquors they used. Eggo booze sounds disgusting.