Saturday Audience Participation
SWPLs love Conan O'Brien. Christian Lander explains:
It is not hard to understand why white people love Conan O’Brien, he embodies so many of the things they already like before he even opens his mouth: Ivy League Schools, Red Hair, the Boston Red Sox, Self Deprecating Humor, The Simpsons, and Bad Memories of High School (likely, but not confirmed). Seeing him on television five nights a week is a comforting reminder of community to the white people who still have televisions.For some reason, I really hate self-deprecating humor. He also notes their disdain for Jay Leno:
Note: Under no circumstances should you ever mention that you prefer Jay Leno. This might cause white people to think you have the same taste in humor as the wrong kind of white people, or worse, their parents.I don't really ever watch late night talk shows, but I have seen enough to know who I like. And by far my favorite is Jimmy Kimmel. Letterman is smarmy, Leno isn't funny, I can't understand anything Ferguson says, and O'Brien is too spastic.
So today's question: Who is your favorite late night talk show host?
22 comments:
I'm not cool enough to watch late night, but:
-Self-deprecating humor is only used by the truly low in self esteem and by those who feel they have nothing to defend--ie, those further up. It's thus a marker of high SES, much as the SWPLs hate to admit it.
Two, both dead: Steve Allen and Johnnie Carson; the New York versions. LA celebrities are too lame for words
Jay Leno is by far the funniest and the best.
Personally I do not like Leno like most white people under 35. However, Leno is not the antichrist. He is just really boring, but not really awful.
I would say I am Conan fan; eventhough, he has not been that good since the nineties. I use to think it was preteena nostalgia; however, seening reruns of his shows in nineties he was a lot funnier then. Conan has lost a lot of his edge and silliness since then. A lot of the self deprecating humor became really prevelent when stop taking risks. Conan use to be more imaginative, and less awakard. When Conan takes risk he can be funny in my opinion.
Kimmel would be a close second after Conan. When he first came on, I really thought he was a more vulgar version of Jay Leno. However, his show has really improved quality the last couple of years. I say Kimmel has pretty much refind a lot of his frat boy type humor. Kimmel show is a very prole type show that appeals to middle class people. If Conan continues to become more boring as years go on, Kimmel will likely be my number one.
Craig Fergueson is really imaginative with humor but is not funny as Conan can be with it. Fergueson always comes of as a Conan clone without the intellect or self awareness. Sometimes funny, but never great.
Jimmy Fallon is just awful. NBC should fire him. Leno while boring is still watchable unlike Fallon.
David Letterman was my favorite as kid and preteen. He can be brillant smartass sometimes when he is not to nervous. However, he does not have the imagination that once had with his show. Still far funnier than Leno and Fallon. Overall, a very good host for intelligent guests. Just not the king of late night that he once was.
I find most people who actually watch Conan to be pretty intelligent. However, most of them agree his not as cool as he was in nineties. Kimmel attends to vary among class and racial groups. Many smart and stupid people. However, they attend to be much younger than Conan's audience. I have only met one person who really loved Fergueson, and she is super weird. Letterman fans attend to be really boring and middle age, but overall not stupid. Leno; eventhough, does attract huge prole audience, I do not find Leno fans unbearable to be around. I never met someone who likes Fallon.
In summary, I am fine with all the late night hosts except Fallon. Also I have yet to watch the George Lopez talk show. Many of my family members loved the Wanda Sykes show when it was on which was just down right awful. Seriously, Wanda Sykes comes off as a white male hating dark skined lesbian shrill voiced gargoyle from the depths of hell. It was like watching a talk show hosted by Neo-Nazis making constant Jew jokes. However, Neo-Nazis are less racist and funnier than Wanda Sykes. Also many of them are better looking too.Seriously, the nonsense black woman act gets old fast.
With the caveat that I don't watch much late night tv:
-Conan has some really funny bits. Triumph the dog, the masturbating bear, Pimpbot 5000. The episode where he goes to Finland was also really funny. Basically, anything of his that ends up on youtube is gold, so maybe I'm just picking the good stuff and he sucks day-to-day.
-I don't know how funny Leno is, but I've seen some of his standup from the 80's, and it was really funny. Much better than the talk show monologues that I've happened to see.
We used to watch Leno once in a great while but now watch no TV at all. We disconnected the cable over a year ago and only watch a couple of "classic" movies from Netflix on the weekends. Whenever we are forced to watch TV at the doctor's office or somewhere, we are shocked that anyone would subject themselves to any of it. Our kids are better off for it, I'm sure.
jamie hyneman & adam savage. don't know anyone else on the television machine. (~_^)
I liked Letterman 20 years ago. He used to be just dry and funny. Now he is just old and curmudgeonly, not even funny.
Most of these guys blow. Conan O'Brien is just not funny. Jay Leno is only a little bit funny. Jimmy Kimmel sucks, Jimmy Fallon sucks. Craig Kilborn was good. Craig Ferguson I have barely watched but seems to be good.
David Letterman used to be a genius, but his downfall tracks the downfall of late night comedy as a whole. Comedy, like other forms of entertainment, started to be taken over as a form of left-wing propaganda in the 60's. Johnny Carson (a man who had real sympathy and understanding of the nation) came before and left after this. With Jay Leno they tried to continue the idea of an all-American genial host, but he is no Johnny.
"Comedy" on TV these days, whether sitcom, sketch, or late might, is mostly just putting down people who aren't "cool", and since most people aren't "cool", few watch.
Carson got mean in his old age.
I rarely watch but I do like Leno and O'brien.
Letterman is for haters. You get the feeling that NYC and celebrity have taken his soul.
OT, she's not late night, but I am as sick of Ellen Degeneres as I am of Ophrah. I'd catch 10-15 minutes of her show maybe once a week during my summer break and I'd find her funny.
Then, she turned to her causes. She obviously began an "education campaign" on homosexuality, first by changing her look: the hair got more and more butch; the clothes as well; even her posture (legs crossed like a man--it seemed forced, premeditated) and on and on.
I am sick of comics and NY/HW types espousing causes. When they venture into issues, I turn them off.
"I am sick of comics and NY/HW types espousing causes. When they venture into issues, I turn them off."
They forget they are entertainers not preachers.
Kimmel is OK during taped bits, his forte and background was radio humor (he used to be the humor guy on KROQ-FM Los Angeles during morning drivetime) and of course, later the Man Show. Conan was an SNL writer, his taped bits usually kill.
Both have almost no standup skills and their monologues generally suck. My fave is Ferguson (hehe) and his background as a stand-up is obvious in his monologues.
Letterman is miserable, ripping off the late Ernie Kovacks with the same stunts (smoking a cigarette underwater, dropping stuff off a building) with no interest or desire to give a good performance (he's bored and it shows). Leno is much the same way, he's been going through the motions for about 12 years (around 1998 or so).
Leno has a miserable writing staff, and has ripped off Howard Stern (Jaywalking) without being funnier, the true mortal sin. At least his stand-up skills make him more "on" during the monologue than anyone but Ferguson.
Conan's "mouth moving" pictures were hilarious, as would be anything with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Robert Smigel). But, most of his monologue is bad because he does not know how to milk an audience which is a skill developed by stand up where you get booed, heckled, etc. This is why both Ferguson and Leno have better presentation skills, though Leno's taped bits are generally awful. Kimmel has extraordinarily funny taped bits, particularly the one where he had Richard Simmons as his exercise fairy, or the kids with the barbie dolls in a tub of baked beans.
The real challenge is coming up with about half an hour of material, night after night. Its brutal, and the ability to be funny depends on attracting a solid writing cast. The guy up front is only as funny as the jokes his writers give him. As their staff ages, the jokes get less funny.
As for getting Middle America, really only Ferguson gets it. Because he's not paid as much, has fewer Hollywood friends, is not afraid of offending potential guests, etc. Leno's cars and wealth and gigs in Vegas in corporate bigwig gatherings leave him disconnected, both Kimmel and Conan are uber-SWPL with Letterman the king of SWPL-ism.
Self-deprecating humor can be appealing enough in those rare instances where the person genuinely doesn't take themselves too seriously. Generally, though, they are either secretly fishing for validation or engaging in a sort of spiritual status-seeking. I can laugh at myself, therefore I'm more evolved than you are.
I like Kimmel, then Leno. Don't care for any of the others.
I have soft spot for Conan. Even though his monologues tend to be meh he is a good interviewer.
Leno and Letterman suck. They're two old men collecting paychecks.
The best late night talk show host is Chelsea Handler, the one talk show host who is hands down the funniest.
Her humor is too vulgar and sharp for older audiences but I don't think anyone can watch her show or Hulu clips of her and argue she isn't the funniest late night host. And not only is Handler a great talent by herself but she is wonderful playing off of other great comedians such as Lisa Lampanelli (who deserves a show of her own)
Pat Sajak!!!
None of the above. I don't even watch TV.
And not only is Handler a great talent by herself but she is wonderful playing off of other great comedians such as Lisa Lampanelli (who deserves a show of her own)
I'll admit that Handler is absolutely hilarious but I simply don't like her.
As for Lisa Lampanelli: she's hilarious too. But an absolutely vile character as reflected in the content of her routines.
Merv Griffin
(Meaning I haven't watched late night TV since my grandma died. I used to stay up and watch with her sometimes after my folks had gone to bed. She liked Merv better than Johnny!)
"You get the feeling that NYC and celebrity have taken [Letterman's] soul."
Absolutely.
It's impossible to imagine early-1980s Letterman being involved in that pathetic infidelity scandal.
The problem with Handler is the same with Sarah Silverman. Their comic persona is the nice/cute girl saying un-PC or sexually suggestive stuff. Its one note. Leno used to get the crutch of going to sex jokes, you get laughs out of embarrassment but its lazy. Of course now his lazy, tired, burnt out writing staff does that schtick all the time.
The real problem is, to come up with all that material you need an amazing and motivated writing staff. About half of Letterman's problem is that his staff is so old and burnt out he can't get any funny bits.
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