{"id":316624,"date":"2026-03-06T21:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/316624\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:46:12","slug":"jafar-panahi-on-the-daily-show-won-late-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/316624\/","title":{"rendered":"Jafar Panahi on \u2018The Daily Show\u2019 Won Late Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Photo: The Daily Show via YouTube\n <\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert had his funniest \u201cI\u2019m looking for a new gig after May\u201d joke this week, and I don\u2019t think it will ever be topped. It happened when he was talking to CNN national-security analyst Brett McGurk<\/a> about who will be the next supreme leader of Iran. That\u2019s it, end the show now. Nothing will ever be funnier than volunteering to become the Ayatollah Colbert.<\/p>\n

The other thing I wanted to shout out before we get into the ranking was the banger week WWHL had. The Traitors star Maura Higgins received her Birkin<\/a> live on air<\/a>, and Rob Rausch even seemed to be having fun. He\u2019s not been the most enthusiastic performer<\/a> during this press tour, but at WWHL, he let his hair down<\/a>. He should do Winter House. Same goes for gold medalist Alyssa Liu, serving as the bartender, who kiki\u2019d like crazy<\/a> with Andy Cohen. Rausch and Liu are new to fame, and WWHL seems like a great place to dip one\u2019s toes into that life. Every late-night show does something the best. Here\u2019s who else excelled this week.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason this is Late Night\u2019s signature segment. Seth Meyers was extra-emotive on Thursday night\u2019s \u201cA Closer Look,\u201d perhaps because Kristi Noem got the ax. I guffawed at the image of a Trump voter watching the show on an ER TV because their tattoo got \u201cso infected.\u201d And he\u2019s right, what is the deal with gas-station TVs? We\u2019re just looking at our phones anyway. The additional screen is superfluous.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something so beautiful and pure about insult comedy \u2014 once you decide what\u2019s mockable, steering back to that topic over and over again is one of life\u2019s great pursuits. The long walk to a \u201cthat\u2019s what your mom said\u201d or, in this case, to Bomani Jones mocking Kash Patel\u2019s cross-eyed mug. Everything wound up circling back to Patel\u2019s eyes. The breadth of topics Jones steered to Kash Patel was as wide as, well, Patel\u2019s field of vision. (Cuz of the cross-eyes, you see.)<\/p>\n

Jimmy Fallon has only ever done Broadway in one of those Simon Rich\u2013devised pieces<\/a>, but he should think about actually hoofin\u2019 in some show. Not only did he serenade Stephen Colbert<\/a> this week, but he led 76 trombones in the big parade. Well, a portion of a high-school marching band in singing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to Eva Mendes. But that\u2019s kind of the same thing. One thing The Tonight Show does better than any other late-night show (and certainly can\u2019t be replicated by video podcasts) is bombast. If Ryan Gosling wants to get a marching band to wish his lady a very happy birthday, Fallon and the gang are going to accommodate that request \u2014 with gusto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Take a friggin\u2019 hike, \u201ccellar door,\u201d the most beautiful phrase in English is now \u201cthe half-eaten one didn\u2019t seem alive to me.\u201d Thanks, Steve Carell. Carell and Stephen Colbert were reminiscing on the grody backstage area of Chicago\u2019s Second City theater. Both old friends had fond memories of rats. It\u2019s nice to know that no matter the squalor one finds oneself in, there\u2019s a good chance you will feel nostalgic for it one day. Apparently, the carpet was so encrusted with gunk it looked like concrete. I don\u2019t even know how that happens.<\/p>\n

What a fucking get to book It Was Just an Accident<\/a> director Jafar Panahi this week. If Panahi\u2019s interview had been a joyless commiseration-fest, that would have been more than acceptable. But Panahi refuses to believe what he does is extraordinary, and so he has jokes about it. The way his interpreter, Sheida Dayani, drops a causal \u201cI\u2019m sorry if I messed up the mood of your show,\u201d after talking about how many people have been shot en masse in Iran, should be studied at the Paley Center for future generations. Panahi\u2019s main talking point for the rest of the interview was that everyday resistance is no big whoop. Furthermore, the only way a resistance can keep going is if everyone contributes small whoops where they can. No focus-pulling heroes to the revolution, but rather enemies to the Establishment at every turn. It\u2019s a message Americans desperately need. So it helps that it was funny, too.<\/p>\n


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