The Death & Future of Late Night: How Chasing Trends Ruined Comedy

I'm not saying my other compatriots are in the dark ages, but hey, come on, do the math, you know what I'm saying, more and more nowadays, the hatred towards

late

night

TV hosts is felt, Ellen is culturally cancelled. . YouTube commenters can't. stop hating on jimmy fallon's supposed fake laugh i'm so sorry i can't stop laughing dude and jimmy kimmel has been canceled on twitter by the same blackface multiple times, although there was a time when

late

night

comedy

was a warm place in USA. Heart, so what happened? Although Johnny Carson wasn't the first person to do this television format after Jack Parr, he was the first to really capture America's attention so unanimously during his time hosting the Tonight Show Everyone Watched in 1992.

Johnny Carson's last week as host. It received 19.45 million viewers The next time a host surpassed 10 million views was the premiere of Jimmy Fallon's first week as host of the Tonight Show in 2014. Right now, many hate these shows for two reasons The main ones, the first, are essentially irritating and unpleasant things. about the host or two that this is simply old media that we no longer need. I've always loved the medium and with all things I think you can do it well or not and currently it's being pushed to the front. of our audience is the no good version, it makes sense that in this new world people want something different, which explains the success of long-form conversation podcasts like Joe Rogans, which gets a hundred million downloads a month and a billion of downloads per year, making it literally the most successful form of episodic media in human history, however, I think there's something deeper going on than just the idea that talk shows are a doomed dead medium to be bad, no matter what you are, I just don't know how you got to the planet of The Apes from our trumpeter, speed of light, Conan, years ago, they did a web-exclusive full-length interview called serious jibber-jabber and he showed that he is a great conversationalist since the program was basically a podcast; however, it's inherently different than how he acts on his main show, which I also love.

It's important to keep in mind that long talk and talk show conversation are simply two different art forms and presentations, both of which can be done well or poorly. You know, Conan, here's the deal. I'm happy to come on your show, I'm happy to talk about the movie, uh, get tough, I'm happy to talk about you, you know anything, but I don't want to talk about my personal life, okay, I think there's a big problem with our current iteration. of the night, aside from our new hosts, many flaws is that corporatism and executives seem to be deeply intertwined with our modern

comedy

pushing for things they think will work and are safe options, that's why it makes sense from a standpoint business getting carried away by Fallon. the trending page playing the same game over and over again with a new celebrity instead of trying something new and edgy like Fallon's old late-night bits, which were much more experimental and outlandish than David Letterman and his successor handled Conan O'Brien. this medium better than anyone else and there are key strengths they've learned over the years that their peers simply lack in making their shows look fake in the Internet age.

One thing that can turn young people away from these types of shows is how great they are and - Seriously, they seem to fall short because if James Corden or Jimmy Fallon make some horrible jokes clearly aimed at older people in Central America, but with this giant suit and tie with long silk curtains as a backdrop, young people will be left thinking that you want me to laugh. This one of Amazon's original products made for their Amazon Basics line of electronics has been bursting into flames, yes, but free shipping if you have Prime, so you gotta take the good stuff with the back.

I mean, I've heard of Kindle Fire. but this is ridiculous, wow, this is a disaster, however, this is a topic that the literati avoided even in the era when these programs were still universally accepted, a lot has been made of the fact that you move at 11: 30 and you have to appeal to order. from a more mainstream audience that your quirky, quirky sense of humor may not translate, that's what some of the detractors want to think. Are you going to change the tone of the show to appeal to a broader range of people? Just do what you can.

Do it and see how it works with a combination of self-loathing and lack of interest in celebrity culture. Letterman and Conan poked fun at this lavish medium throughout their careers. What do you think is not racist? It's just stupid where Johnny Carson would walk. Being America's Father from their rainbow curtain to Johnny Letterman calling and Conan would make a fool of themselves and how ridiculous this setup is, almost in protest at the idea that they deserve something like this, but now our current hosts seem to work . He gets carried away with the fun and glamor of having a show like this, but misses every opportunity to fight it for comedy.

It might be funny that Colbert's studio is huge like a Catholic cathedral covered in his own face until, when he shows up, he just isn't. performed for comedy and is rather an aspect of the show, the show has always had the format of a monologue, an exclusive desk comedy that bit into the guesswork and the musical act and within these chapters of the late dance show there is the opportunity for the host to create a comedy experiment. and show their personality and why you should watch them, colbert is the most baffling to me in this regard because i found steven to be a much stronger performer on his first show, colbert's report before he accepted the late show as a replacement for letterman and if you watched the previous clips from Steven's latest show, even that was much more reminiscent of his core comedy self than what we have now, which is often less funny and more repetitive.

In an interview with Jerry Seinfeld, bearded Stephen Colbert from 2015 reveals that after nine years of doing the Colbert Report, he was ready to retire and that's why he left his show because I've been doing this show for nine years and my body started to burn my teeth as fuel. Only after making this decision was he offered the late program. gig that he felt he couldn't turn down, I must say that although following David Letterman, it must be intimidating, yes you must have some balls, the implications of this are huge, as with more context we now know that we are not watching a man who left his program. climb in life but rather a man who was ready to put down the torch only to rekindle it moments later it's hard to believe that this guy is actually five years younger than this guy in the relationship colbert was a well polished machine playing his alter character ego who was a self-obsessed Republican narcissist, enjoyed his applause and made his guest wait for him as he walked across the screen and often played with the interview format by interrupting guests with sharp wit to achieve a comic effect. has made political humor the main element not only of his monologue but of his entire show's identity, as even when it hits the desktop it feels like a continuation of what he was doing moments ago, essentially creating a television network of trumpet, which has allowed him to rise rapidly. to the top even beating Fallon, however, while Fallon rose to the top by falling into repetitive and expected celebrity videos designed to trend on YouTube, Colbert is essentially doing the same by using a topic as lewd as Trump, this is in in some sense the antithesis of Conan and Letterman. the self-loathing that kept them grounded or Letterman's refusal to conform to the mainstream, is also extremely ironic because Colbert from the beginning made a relationship-style joke about how indulging in Trump comedy is like eat junk food and that you should not allow yourself to overindulge. before it becomes an unhealthy addiction, okay, anyway, one is enough, um, that's the only triumph story I'll give myself tonight, well, maybe just one more, you know, and now It is obvious that its hosts are indebted to the ratings and numbers that are maintained.

By

chasing

trends

, Colbert has firmly forced the entire competition ecosystem to keep up with this mediocre political comedy that has gone completely in two directions, you know, there are people who have been, it's all about, I mean, all about politics, the whole show is politics, that's why when you see the summary of what they talked about it's blank he took down Donald Trump today like that and like that roasted you know uh this person the administration is all that and some of it is very smart and very good but it's all that and then there's another type of comedy which is completely escapist, let's play, let's have fun and then I feel like I just found something that I like, which is a really silly comedy that I've been doing since 1993, where I'm doing the show and maybe someone interrupts me and it's an old coal miner, this used to be a completely separate world from the one at night where jon stewart and colbert were masters at what they did, but on their own island, but now that these worlds are each less separated, both the networks and us as an audience look at jimmy kimmel trevor noah bill maher james corden everything as part of the same genre as the direct competitors, which is not a good thing, in fact I believe fallon when he says that he never He used to pay attention to the ratings and was really just having fun until the peak of his show's success tonight, all until the executives wanted him to pay more attention once Colbert invaded.

It's a major strength that Colbert interviews politicians and intellectuals so well and brings this speech to a mainstream audience, but he mainly falls short when it comes to the comedy of his monologues, celebrity interviews, and having a distinctive show identity with the desktop comedy after years of playing his alter ego character, his transition into himself is a bit confusing for the audience since we don't really know. exactly who he is, besides being witty and political in celebrity interviews, he's really bad at creating comedy or chemistry and I think this is a result of taking someone who used to play a character who made fun of celebrities and now has to sit still and take it seriously to entertain America, but I find that Steven has an inability to care about or relate to guests and often comes across as cocky in an awkward way that may work for the studio audience, but fails in home, right?

Do you know who the number one guy like Knight is right now? You're right, it's important to remember that this is not so much a conversation as a conversational performance and the host's job is to play off the guest and what they want to do. best with Fallon, I don't think his laugh is fake but I think he's just that guy, the guy who loves everyone and wants them to know, but simply listing what's so great about someone to their face does it. don't leave us with chemistry or comedy and it just feels like an infomercial you're so cool you're cool you crushed it the host's job isn't really to ask good questions but rather to be a good reactor and just talk in a way that helps them when Bill Burr comes to Conan and has lewd shots.

Conan knows how to goad him or push him against his premise, not to shut him down but to highlight the funnyness of what's being said and, if anything, let Bill bend, you know? how he would do it what he would do, he would sink random cruise ships, yeah, what, wait a minute, yeah, let's hear it. Why would you randomly think about cruises? Because you'd have 2,500 to 3,000 people in the right place, and I wouldn't. I don't think it's a good combination of people to get rid of, ironically I think making fun of the guest is a vitally important part of the show, but Jimmy's oversaturation of this with the lack of interesting questions has made the audience turn. insensitive to this. because once something starts to seem contrived, the public can notice and start evaluating you just because we hear the studio audience having a good time because they are in the presence of celebrities, that doesn't mean we will automatically laugh at home, jimmy kimmel and james corden are like the yin-yang twins of stagnant culture where they represent two sides of the same redundant media coin jimmy kimmel represents normie culture being the generic squeaky clean cereal box dictionary definition of a talk show host with no personality discernible in his show in some ways just creating comedy by regurgitating and reacting to the pop spirit around him the lemon emperor did a deep dive on jimmy kimmel and I highly recommend it and I know it came from the showmen and it makes sense that there are weird clips like this from her past maybe it would be easier if you kept your mouth shut oh my god women will just have to deal with harassment all the time everywhere else they go , even though he's supposedly matured and is better off now that his poor interview skills and airheadedness still lead to weird moments like this.

What are you supporting tonight? I don't know, I'd have to look later, we'll look, you'll check my pants and we'll see what I do. Meanwhile, I'm Using James Corden represents the all too common media problem of being a copy of bad pop culture, essentially acting like a Jimmy Fallon clone following the formula of repetitive bits designed to trend on YouTube and thriving almost by complete from celebrity culture and fallon is an overexcited golden retriever who can completely ruin the momentum of a joke by asking a stupid question but at least he's authentically himself yeah, because I don't take a nap because I need one.

I just love it, it's my favorite thing. You like it more than sleeping. You better sleep, it's like the ultimate nap. Really, that's stupid. You just said there's something to say, something so dumb to say, and Colbert has the most problems in interviews of anyone, from sometimes being alienating, like when he pointed out that 50 cents. You are rich again and again despite your own fortune of 50 million dollars, you have two Rolls Royces, you also bought some new houses, you just did something in Monaco, you like rich people, you like hanging out with the British, you are a tycoon who else is a tycoon is donald trump oh brother this guy sucks he's often a bad listener which ruins what the guest was trying to prepare but then you didn't do it you didn't listen ok i won't be back to do the program, what do you do?

Do you think he may even be narcissistic and try to belittle the guest in a completely unpleasant way? This is like a vacation. I just asked you one question and we're, what's nine minutes? in your response, they turn off the cameras halfway through that horse story, it's just all this, but I understand that you wanted to be a serious writer like what happened with the series. I'm answering your questions now, hell is that, but the worst of all. He just seems to be too aware that he's number one on the night right now and because of this he doesn't play with the electricity of the moment and will even shut down a comedy premise if it's not on PC. making a joke, I went, I saw this walking lesbian at a restaurant and I was like, "Oh my God, it's like it's undeniable that she was a lesbian, yes, she was dressed like John Goodman on Roseanne, yes, she was a construction worker ".

Weren't her hands not as clean as mine? It's like in comedy, you can have a comedy duo of a straight man and a comedian where the straight man pushes the comedian's postures for comedic effect, like Conan does with Bilber, what Colbert does. what he's doing here isn't that he's doing it rather he's just not allowing the joke to happen, feigning ignorance of what's being said and because colbert isn't laughing the audience isn't laughing and then in turn we aren't laughing either. we laugh at home. At their best, these shows are supposed to be fun and unexpected, the host and guest taking the show's format for promoting products, whether it's a new movie or album, and breaking it up to have fun with the format and harness the electricity. of the moment, in other words, it's okay if the interview goes off the rails if it's in the service of entertainment or comedy, okay, this 11-minute clip of Bradley Cooper is by far the hardest thing I've ever laughed at watching to Jimmy Fallon where Jimmy and Bradley try to talk. about something as tragic and dark as the elephant man you know what's not funny this guy was horribly deformed let's see what's good it's really not funny at all it's all horrible and the poor thing we laugh at him but only after we forget what they were wearing these absolutely inappropriate peaked hats from this segment before the movie, there are prosthetics, but I love that we still have them on, but it feels good, tell me it doesn't feel good, then they get caught in a loop of Trying to start this part of the interview over and over again because they just can't take their hats off because it would ruin the continuity of the edit.

I'll just cut to enlarge this and then we'll figure this out. Based on this, you know, we got it, we got it, we got it, you can feel the visceral laughter of the audience, as they feel like they are part of a comedy club, by seeing something unexpected and funny, they can be part of how do it. This instead of just cheering for the mere fact that the celebrity is before them, this is what Conan and Letterman were so good at creating moments with their guests by playing with their personalities and seizing the moment by being good listeners instead of just call him on the phone. like kimmel or just thinking about the next question, not listening at all like colbert, this is where I really have to hand it to seth meyers because when he himself is not such a fun conversationalist, you can tell he is well respected and good at making make the guest feel comfortable and play with what they want to do, create a very organic atmosphere that only makes sense since he is a huge comedy fan and was the head writer for one of the most beloved eras of Saturday Night Live ever. has existed as a host. guest chemistry and not doing what was expected craig ferguson may have been the best at this where he not only had the most edgy version of a show like this but he broke out the blue cards with the show's pre-made questions every episode. having an impromptu conversation and even disrespecting the sanctity of his program by casually sitting down.

The lawyer even knew how to make a joke out of the guest musical segment if it was him

chasing

the

future

, come on, hey, don't be like that. that now we will never be able to open the teen center Hi Tyler, how are you doing? Okay, yeah, that's good. Thank you so much. Have you ever been to Bend Oregon? I don't know, I don't worry about it, it's okay. We are asking each drummer whether or not they owned their drums or whether they were rentals, boy, those are great, those are yours, one of those rentals are those your drums, great, nice, drums, how are you?, handsome , drum.

Thank you very much, we have established that the problem is not that this style of show is outdated and doomed to failure, but that our current version is full of missed opportunities and chasing

trends

, whether or not it is political culture or celebrity culture, and that these programs should leave more room to play. taking the risk, it's still worth asking what happens in the

future

: will this format change or need to change in order to work? Conan has already thought about this himself and of his own free will reduced his one hour show to a half hour show with only one Bachelor Guest, he had the smallest ego of all and realized that in the YouTube generation It's better to have a more accessible short program that people can love.

He also started his own podcast where you can listen to him have longer conversations which have now been praised in variety magazine many took this the wrong way as the podcast industry has been huge and under informed for a long time and Conan is by no means The real pioneer of this moment, however, it is worth noting that he is a pioneer in the night. circuit to move things forward and this is part of it, it seems significant that the guy who is better at talking to his guests in a realized television format also wants to do the extra work by having longer and less contrived online conversations in this podcast.

In this format you can achieve this type of connection that you can't achieve any other way, so I love it. The main reason they reduced his schedule is that it leaves them more opportunities to do their Conan Without Borders version of the show where he travels. world and perform comedy in new countries while learning the culture and connecting with those around him. What's amazing is that he apparently has fans everywhere he goes and they love him for his character, but what's more amazing is the laughter he gets from the people who have him. I have no idea who he is, wherever he goes, he has the charisma to make people laugh and, to me, this clearly points out the difference between him and his competitors.

Do you really think you could put Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel in the middle of China and make a random viewer laugh, I don't, at best I think they would make humor about the strange world around them and find something to point out compared to how Conan manages to make the world point at him a few years ago, Conan even helped his comedian friend Pete Holmes. started his own late night show that appeared before his, it didn't last long but you can tell it had authenticity and some of this forward thinking was already contained in it, from Pete's lack of a desk to complete and utter refusal to take Seriously, this is beautiful, by the way, I haven't seen your set, yes, in person, yes, yet, this is a fantastic steakhouse, this is the best steakhouse in Seattle.

Beautiful masonry they've done, in fact almost every episode featured another comedian absolutely. roasting pete in his face and him loving every moment you're dressed like you're the ceo of a pumpkin patch pete actually laughed so hard he almost fell over but the main difference is that in the youtube comments I can actually find people who love it because when you hear Pete's laugh it sounds more like you're listening to a room full of people eager to see what happens next. This is completely different from the canned applause of Jimmy Fallon and James Corden. or the seriousness of Stephen Colbert, however, there are rays of hope for the future even outside of Conan and his group, when I first saw the promotions you were doing years ago at Vice Land Outlet, I thought these guys, this that's all. it's the future this is how it should be and it makes me so happy that it happened that way for you two this is brother wow jesus and miro you are an amazing duo and your vice land show for me was perfect reaction to this ever changing market where they were loose bullets improvising drinking on the screen commenting on things from the Internet and declaring that yes, they are part of the night family saying that more late night show no more late night show, this is Why is it so ironic and painful for me to see that already after Since they escalated their career and moved from Viceland to Showtime, the quality of their show has already gone down to where Jesus and I look around themselves like nobody was?

Now I listen to them with a studio audience that largely doesn't laugh as much as I used to in my room watching their Viceland show. Now, in this era of quarantine content, I'm seeing more and more people creating shows like this for themselves from home. and the pressure will only continue to fall on our main hosts in this day and age, the future of our late night comedy success will not just depend on who is funniest, but more importantly, who dares to be the most authentic, this is zane berry from tall skeleton, have a good night