Photo: Randy Holmes/Disney
Everyone but Seth Meyers was off last week in late night. Every year, Late Night front-loads content, then vacays the following week … which means the Meyers family’s annual Thanksgiving reunion never makes it onto this column. Sad! This year, he had all of his lobby babies on the show as well as his parents and brother. (Yes, I know only one of them is a bona fide lobby baby, but what am I supposed to do — learn their names? Grow up.) It was so cute seeing how each one dealt with the spotlight and audience attention. And any time Hilary Meyers is on the show, it’s a treat. Her “Day Drinking” remains S-tier.
The other big late-night news happened on Jimmy Kimmel Live! As announced during Thursday night’s monologue, Kimmel is the third-most-Googled guy on the planet this year. He acknowledged that it’s a dubious honor at best, considering the most-searched person is singer–murder suspect D4vd. No. 2 is Kendrick Lamar, who, as Kimmel put it, “murdered Drake this year at halftime of the Super Bowl.” Later in the monologue, Kimmel expressed surprise that he beat Diddy in the Google searches. I can explain that, Jimmy: Sean “Diddy” Combs, f.k.a. Puff Daddy, f.k.a. P. Diddy, has really bad SEO. No one moniker can generate enough clicks, and it makes him seem less important to analytics. Kimmel thanked his No. 1 fan, Donald Trump, for making him so newsworthy. Expect a tirade on Truth Social any minute. Until then, here were the best moments on late night this week.
The Daily Show has been doing the “Ko$ta Doing Business” segment for a while, and it’s dependably fun. But this particularly festive edition just hit a little better. I think it was Michael Kosta’s insanely loosey-goosey, Andrew Dice Clay–evoking delivery — a lot of yelling “Oh!” and leaning weird. It spoke to the bravura that masks the financial and emotional insecurity this time of year. If you don’t have a work Christmas party to attend, this is like a microdose of seeing co-workers let loose in ways that will haunt you into the New Year.
On Busy This Week, host Busy Philipps and Henry “Nicest Guy in Hollywood” Winkler competed to see who could say the most nice things about Bryce Dallas Howard. She has been a guest on the show, and she’s Winkler’s goddaughter. Her lovely children, her parenting skills, her charming husband who was great on later seasons of Fringe — it all got shouted-out. Until Philipps mentioned that Howard has somehow never seen an episode of her dad and godfather’s show, Happy Days. “She’s dead to me,” Winkler said. “I don’t even know her name.” That’s showbiz for you, I guess.
A snippet of Monday night’s “What’s Behind Me?” Tonight Show segment broke containment from late night into the larger discourse, and people could not handle it. Some said the concept of three Labubus doing the 6-7 at a McDonald’s drive-through was (1) proof the world ended in 2012 and we live in hell now, (2) gas-leak culture, and (3) a wild place to debut a fuck-ass bob. But what it actually was is the props budget being put to good use. This isn’t even that crazy of a “What’s Behind Me?” for The Tonight Show to stage. This segment is always great because it’s the last two brain cells of a writer dying, and now that’s the props guy’s problem. It has to cost a certain amount of money, what with the rotating platform and multiple Labubu costumes. The celeb-guessing is irrelevant compared to the insane tableau vivant the extras perform. What matters is that we are seeing money on that screen.
Look at this goddamned pro make a Manhattan without breaking eye contact with Stephen Colbert. Look at her explain a needless branding change while adding vermouth to rye. Look at The Late Show for knowing a Manhattan is best with rye and not bourbon. This is classy TV, folks. When we lose Colbert, we will be losing a dignified fella in late night. We need those to balance out the “3 Labubus Doing the 6-7 at a McDonald’s Drive-thru” of it all. The whole thing works only as a juxtaposition, like Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Paul Anka not only guested on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, but he wrote the fucking theme song. Carson actually guested on Anka’s show before he ever took over The Tonight Show. And when Carson was picking his new theme song, he went with the guy who gave him a job — and who gave him a writing credit on his own theme song, thus ensuring residuals upon residuals in perpetuity. Late-night geek Jimmy Kimmel made sure to ask Anka about all that when the singer appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday night. And Anka had anecdotes aplenty — and jokes. Ancient jokes that he probably did in Vegas in the ’60s, whose writers are long dead. And you know what? They still worked! Hearing Paul Anka make jokes about tits and PMS, which were outré in the Sands lounge in ’73 but now are pretty chill, it just warms the heart.
