Photo: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert via YouTube
Let’s pour one out for the bar under Stephen Colbert’s desk. When they tear down the guts of the Ed Sullivan Theater, Colbert’s bar cart will go unmourned — unless we mourn it now! When Colbert served a star a drink, it never felt forced or like it had the coercive fun of “We are so totally going to party.” It was just a little social lubricant, given to very grateful stars. Pedro Pascal was practically vibrating with nerves before he got a finger of Casamigos this week. It’s kind of Catholic in its way, affording the celebs some grace. Here’s who was most graceful this week in late night.
What’s better than The Daily Show making fun of an absurd AI start-up designed by losers to cater to a loser clientele? The Daily Show making fun of two absurd AI start-ups designed by losers to cater to a loser clientele. The utter disdain Ronny Chieng brought to the piece was delicious. He’s saying what we’re all thinking — namely, that AI is stupid and not a suitable replacement for human interaction. And that the Empire is, in fact, the baddie in the Star Wars universe.
Sally Field was letting her hair down on WWHL. She and Lisa Kudrow were queening out for the whole episode. Kudrow’s improvising as Valerie Cherish on WWHL was a hoot, especially because it’s something that would happen on The Comeback. But the best moment was Field giving zero fucks (and saying “fuck” on live TV) during a counting game. She was wild and free and we liked her. We really, really liked her.
We spoke about Pascal on Colbert in the intro, but Pascal on Seth Meyers had the bits and thus made it into the top five. “Are you one of those people who are like, ‘I love the water’?” Meyers asked, immediately conjuring a Type of Guy in our minds — the ones who want to play mermaids in the pool at 35. Pascal danced back and forth over this trope, at times owning it and other times disavowing it as being as annoying as Meyers made it out to be. As one of those people who won’t shut up about the water, I felt implicated and included.
Got to love an interview format that makes the participants get their steps in. Jimmy Fallon chatted Titaníque with Jim Parsons, with a twist. Because Céline Dion is so integral to the piece, The Tonight Show used “My Heart Will Go On” as a trigger. If she sang “near,” Fallon and Parsons had to get as near to each other as possible. “Far” forced them to be as far apart as possible — and they got really, really far. Way to explore the space, fellas.
The widely fêted part of this interaction between Colbert and Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the roast of Colbert by Dreyfus as Veep’s Selina Meyer. The kiss was also a thing. Homeboy has been getting smoochy in his last few weeks, and who can blame him? But the best part was two old Second City pals reminiscing on sweet home Chicago. When Colbert goes (and dear Lord, how soon that will be!), what I will miss most is when he talks peer-to-peer with someone who’s been in the comedy trenches.
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