I grew up watching late night television as it aired during my lifetime, and I never really stopped watching from the antics of Conan O'Brien (I love the introduction portion of his podcast and his shenanigans with Jordan Schlansky) to the countless parodies of Jimmy Fallon's Late Night/Tonight Show; the wicked-smart satire of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart; the witty and sharp John Oliver to the silly Jimmy Kimmel and the kookiness of Craig Ferguson; and even the classic Letterman. I'll admit it, as much as I've watched classic television shows and movies on repeat, the talk shows of the early days of late-night aren't really on that list. Interestingly enough, the first late night talk show was led by a woman: The Faye Emerson Show in 1941. 

 Overall, I love watching late night TV, especially the monologues and travel moments and hilarious creative segments. For instance, when Kimmel's show would ask people questions, and they would answer in the dumbest ways. And Kimmel's Unnecessary Censorship segments are such a silly and immature concept yet it's still hilarious. And then, there are moments that were so good, they became their own show. Conan's remotes (when he would go to different places outside the set, and just be himself in those spaces) were so popular, that he now has quite a few different TV specials and series that have built upon that concept. 

I have referenced and written about only a few of my favorite moments in late night television and comedy in my Video Mash-Up: Late Night Talk Shows post and even in SNL and JT. But there are so many moments that still stick with me, and thank goodness YouTube exists so that I have the ability to look back at some of these memorable, hilarious creations.

Like this:

 Or this:

The LATE (LOST parody) was my favorite one from Jimmy Fallon's Late Night, which wasn't included on their YouTube playlist. But I did find this: https://www.tiktok.com/@fallonathome/video/7250639331428273426.

 

 Theses comedians, and so many more, help get their audience through difficult and/or annoying times. They make us laugh and remind us to enjoy life when it can be pretty easy for life to feel stale, meaningless and devoid of joy. It's unfortunate how in American society, it's easy for people (myself included) to see life as an endless routine of work and tasks, obsessive productivity-on repeat-for means of survival. It can be surprisingly easy to forget that moments of joy are not only allowed, but they are necessary. And comedy reminds us it's not that hard to remember! 

These shows allow us to have a good laugh at even while also paying attention to current events. 

 

These comedians and their teams have a way of telling the truth, setting stories straight, and making sense of the nonsense while also inspiring their audience to think and laugh! Comedy and laughter has a pretty cool way of bringing people together and keeping us from being consumed by the insanity that seeks to harm and/or destroy us.

 

In recent years, I have been enjoying making YouTube playlists. In the past year or two, I've binged-watched Conan's podcast intros and created a Conan favorites playlist (which I have watched/listened to repeatedly, it's that good!) It has been interesting to see him from this perspective after having seen him in the late-night-show style for so many decades.

 

 I also found Josh Johnson, who has become one of my very favorite comedians, next to Wanda Sykes. He was also a writer for the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and is a correspondent on the Daily Show. I binged-watched all of his stand-up videos on YouTube this past year, and also created a Josh Joshson favorites playlist. His storytelling is so compelling with so many visual and intricate details that he so seamlessly weaves into recent events and topics of discussion. 

  

I'm not sure if this counts as a late-night show, but this almost game-show style comedy talk show, which was originally created in Britain, is a newer show to American audiences: Have I Got News for You. They are hilarious and on-point with their commentary:

 

We gotta fight for our rights (to party), and constantly revisit it as I refer back to a post I wrote back in 2012 about a comedic flash-dance-like revival of the popular Beastie Boys song.

Stay sane, keep laughing, and remember to have fun!

I thought it would be a nice idea to put together some of, what I think are, the most absolutely hilarious videos from the late night talk shows that I've seen from this past month. So, as we said in the school news video production class, "let's go check it out!"

How do I know these are funny? Because in all of these videos, I found myself laughing super hard through the whole thing - So yeah, take a minute or two to check them out!
 


Starting off with an amazing, amazing, hilarious - it really is this amazingly hilarious - video from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Downton Sixbey (2012, Fallon, NBC)



 From all the Downton fever going around (not a real fever), I realize whenever I try to write Downton "downtown" I always end up writing "downton."

With all that said and done, I think this was an explosively funny week for the always creative and always funny non-stop "giggle factory" of Late Night. Not to forget the fact that this week was "perm week", the guests were hilarious, the old-timey, jazzy 1920's flashback-radio show with Will Smith, and the latest, Housewives of Late Night (2012, Fallon, NBC), which is actually so much better than the real hour-long episodes.





Moving on to the very off-beat eccentric and versatile, yet still remaining the very on-beat versatile humor-- I'm talking about the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. There are so many hilarious moments from this show that I don't even know where to start, but that's all I can say. I mean, if you haven't seen this show, you should definitely check it out!



Overall, throughout the whole show, Craig will have you busting out laughing at the most unexpected moments.




You can see another super hilarious interview with Mila Kunis, that I talked about, here. Or you can just click here to go directly to the interview.



Another talk show I noticed getting attention was an interview David Letterman did with Brian Williams. The interview, which can be seen at Huffington Post, concerns a few important political issues, which make it worth seeing.

Well, hope this made laughs and informed because that is the point of this post. If there are any other late night-related shows/videos that you think are fully hilarious, feel free to leave a comment or a link.

Sources:
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. NBC. WXIA, New York. 2012. Television.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Lassally, Peter. Letterman, David. CBS. Worldwide Pants. Los Angeles, California. 2012. Television.

Usually, I wouldn't mix music into this already broad-topic of a blog unless it was done subtly. But the revisted 'Fight for Your Right' is more than just a music video. It is a short film that consists mostly of Beastie montage scenes showing the cast's egregious and silly antics.

When I saw Elijah Wood as a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he brought up an interesting topic regarding the shoot of a Beastie Boys video. The short clip of the music video showed Wood, Seth Rogen, and Danny McBride posing as the young Beastie Boy members through fish-eye lens.
It wasn't until I finally saw the short film in its entirety that I noticed the hilarious cornucopia of numerous famous faces in the film/television industry including Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Ted Danson, Orlando Bloom and many other recognizable figures. Interestingly enough, this is film creation where all of the extras are actually very famous figures making their own significant cameos. Never have I seen so many cameos in such a short time.


The film and editing techniques extraordinarily intensify the situational occurances while the blasting 'Beastie' music which altogether gives the film that classic Beastie Boys' feel.



Youtube, Beastie Boys, Capital Records (2011)


I think that taught an important lesson: Don't forget to "make some noise" as you "fight for your right to party."

Tofurky Vegan Cheese Pizza



Nope. I didn't put it on a plate - I already knew it would cease to exist in seconds.

From these slightly blurred photos (sorry), the pizza doesn't even look vegan. So if you think vegans can't enjoy good pizza, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to re-think that. There are many great vegan pizzas out there just waiting to be devoured. Tofurky's vegan pizzas are somewhat, semi-healthier than the mainstream/average take-out pizza and are tasty. Tofurky's 'Vegan Cheese Pizza' tastes just like any other frozen pizza with its light, crisp crust and the cheesiest melted top. This vegan pizza has a frozen pizza.


As Jimmy would say, "Pizza train, pizza train. . ." from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's mini-episode of Seventh Floor West (Season 1, Episode 4), which you can see what I mean here.