Photo: LastWeekTonight via Youtube
So this is just how it’s going to be from now on, huh? Late-night hosts make jokes, President Trump and/or FCC chairman Brendan Carr call for late-night hosts to be fired, then late-night hosts make jokes about the calls for their firing. In the words of Me You and Everyone We Know, “back and forth forever.”
Trump came for Seth Meyers first this week, with Carr retweeting it. As Meyers pointed out on Monday’s “A Closer Look,” the last time Trump threw shade at Late Night was when Meyers talked about the wacky stuff Trump had said about trebuchets. And since Trump posted his latest screed after a Friday-night rerun, Meyers concluded the president was activated by the same dang episode. At least he’s consistent.
On Wednesday night, Trump tried to get Jimmy Kimmel fired again, because it worked out so well the last time. During Thursday’s monologue, Kimmel noted that Trump’s anti-ABC Truth Social post dropped right after the show finished airing on the East Coast, which means he gets mad at the show live. “Hi, Mr. President,” Kimmel said to the camera. “How are you? Thanks for watching us on TV instead of on YouTube. We appreciate that. And I’ll tell you, it’s viewers like you who keep us on the air.” We may be lowly YouTube viewers here, but we’re still doing our part to bring you the best of late night every week — for as long as that’s an option.
Kate Winslet may finally squash the British-versus-American food debate that seems ever festering on TikTok. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she asked for insight into why there are so many pies at Thanksgiving. Kimmel explained that it’s something your flakier (pastry pun) relatives can bring to the meal. They feel included, nothing is ruined if they bail, and you get, like, eight pies at dinner. Everybody wins. Winslet is such a pro at late night. She even makes praising King Charles relatable later in this segment. Her story about not wanting to flash her nips at the then–Prince of Wales is choice. This is a woman at ease and having fun. And that makes us have fun watching.
We all knew the “Bubba” email was going to be a big topic of conversation at the top of this week; the question was who was going to have the best/most fellatio jokes in their Monday monologue. The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart were neck and neck for much of their run times, but Colbert just squeezed out a win by also making horse-cock puns. Saying Trump allegedly went “Churchill Downs” on Bubba the Horse is what clinched it. Well done, sir.
This stand-up set from comedian-actor Greta Titelman feels like great fodder for a show starring Greta Titelman as baby Greta Titelman. I want to see more of the fourth-grader scatting into the phone at her crush or fighting with her mom at the beach. The point of a late-night set for a comic is to get the public into your whole deal so that they come see you when you’re on tour, and Titelman very adroitly lays her deal out in this tight five. You’re going to know whether you’d be into an additional 55 minutes by the end. And I’m in.
On a rare Sunday-night episode of The Tonight Show (which followed Sunday Night Football), Rosalía spoke to Jimmy Fallon about her banger of a breakup album, Lux. Then she did the c- – – iest performance of “La Perla,” complete with subtitles so all us stupid monolinguals know what a searing diss track it is. My favorite part were the two attendants who stood by Rosalía’s Princess and the Pea bed whose only move of the night was to help her down for the final chorus. When a Tonight Show performance goes hard, it really, really goes hard.
On Sunday’s season finale of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver addressed the distressing budget cuts public media has suffered this year. And it ended with a call to action, directing folks to donate to the Public Media Bridge Fund. Terrific. Last Week Tonight should always end its (usually incredibly distressing) shows with something people can do to stop whatever ghastly thing is the week’s topic. But Oliver & Co. went a little further, utilizing the show’s most powerful weapon: its Big Dumb Prop budget. Last Week Tonight is auctioning off some of the wack shit the show has made in service of comedy — things like LBJ’s giant testicles, Oliver’s cabbage wife, and a DVD of Mr. Bean signed by Joel McHale — to benefit the Public Media Bridge Fund too. That’s not just making the world a better place but doing so in the dumbest way possible.