Shout-out to late-night television for feeding America when the Trump administration won’t. Stephen Colbert linked to several food charities via QR code during Monday’s monologue. He also provided an additional code to a video of a baby monkey riding a donkey, which was nice. Jimmy Kimmel made it personal, as he often does, by transforming the back parking lot of his studio into a drop-off site for food. He did the same thing during the California wildfires back in January.
The other big story of the week was, of course, the elections. Prop 50 passed in California, Zohran Mamdani was elected in New York City, and the Dem in Virginia who had the texting scandal won despite said texting scandal. It was a crazy night all around. Jimmy Fallon got in on the victory lap, saying the night was “a huge kick in the ballroom” for Trump. Fallon said something recently about not wanting to be “that political” on The Tonight Show, which was highly criticized by fans of more political shows. But as someone who watches the monologue every night, he’s still doing a lot of political material. It may not be the entire monologue, but Fallon calls Trump a dictator and whatnot. He’s meaner than you think and perhaps even meaner than he thinks. See clip No. 4 on this list, in which he compares Trump to Manson.
Here’s what separates Andy Cohen from the other late-night hosts: He’s gonna say the thing. While discussing ayahuasca with Judd Apatow and Isla Fisher, Cohen said he’s never wanted to try it because he doesn’t really want to know himself. That, in and of itself, is actually pretty good self-awareness. In a separate clip the same night, Cohen says he wants to get on wikiFeet. It’s hard to picture other TV hosts copping to a potentially unrelatable set of priorities like that, which, ironically, makes Cohen more relatable. P.S.: He is on wikiFeet.
The award for sweatiest bit of the week goes to The Tonight Show. And it is an award, as the series of puns Tariq Trotter and Jimmy Fallon lobbed back and forth on Tuesday night was intentionally belabored. It was a well-executed rake joke, and I salute how far we all had to walk to get to the punchline of Is It Cake?
The Late Show had two great spon-con moments this week. First, Tom Hanks plugged his real coffee brand on Monday night. Then Guillermo del Toro shilled a fake energy drink on Thursday. Del Toro was such an amiable huckster. He should sell branded drinks in real life. The recursive design of the can is a delight. Sidenote: The guy playing Frankenstein’s monster also took the “Colbert Questionert” in the getup last week. Good call having this fellow do two sketches in such labor-intensive makeup.
Sex sells. Spider League sells harder. Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin were on Late Night With Seth Meyers to discuss The Chair Company, but really, they were there to discuss Spider League, the group text where Robinson, Kanin, Brooks Whelan, and a few other arachnophiles share spider pics and debate deadliness. Seth Meyers is not a fan of the League. He’s discussed this on the show before, and now the League hates him back. “He’s an enemy of the League,” Kanin wrote in a text shared on Late Night. “He exploits the League for ratings.” You can debate whether Spider League is a ratings booster all you want, but the evidence speaks for itself. I’m writing about it, aren’t I?
This whole Late Night episode was a banger, actually. Stavros Halkias was great as the other guest, and the demented way Meyers yelled “Crocs!” in “Ya Burnt” (kinda like a guy from Boston yelling “Sawx!”) was must-watch TV.
I am overjoyed that non-Dodger fans got this opportunity to see the telegenic presence that is Kiké Hernández. He is the silliest of silly geese. I foresee a post-athletic career acting for my man à la Marshawn Lynch. It was also great seeing how having the Doggies in the studio lifted the spirits of everyone there. Kimmel was so hyped to discuss game seven. And the night’s other guests caught the fever; superfan Elizabeth Olsen and regular fan Josh Brolin were all about it. Brolin did a quick change in their honor, but Olsen was positively giddy. During her segment, she told Kimmel she’d never been a fan of anything before becoming a Dodgers fan eight years ago. Girl, what? And Guillermo got to hold the trophy!