18. "Yeah, he was a network president for many years." In response to Reply # 17
Truly one of the best dudes to work for - and he was like Zelig to all this cable stuff. I mean, you're listening to the podcast so I don't have to regurgitate it all but I'll say this about him - a) he knew EVERYONE who worked there - assistants on up (which is kinda unusual in the best way) and b) big hip hop head - the holiday parties under him were dope cause he got Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie, and Mix Master Mike to play. I even told him one year "Man, I don't care if other people don't know who these dudes are - THANK YOU for bringing them in - this rules"
imo funniest part was the man on the street interview about why people in LA don't like New York. it's not on youtube: https://abc.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live
5. "Just started watching. He's definitely nervous but that " In response to Reply # 2
will improve over time.
They need to light him better for the monologues. They should holler at the people who do lighting for Issa Rae's stuff - she makes sure that dark skinned people are light correctly. I think they make a point of that with Queen Sugar too.
6. "EVERY new late show host is awkward as shit for like 1-2 years." In response to Reply # 5 Tue Aug-16-22 11:24 PM by Triptych
Noticed this before.
All of them. The early shows are soooooo bad. Seth Myers is good now IMO but he looked like he was shitting himself on camera for the first like 50 shows.
Desus is waaaaaaaay better than most of them when they started. Though to be fair he's had more direct experience than all but Colbert.
10. "he is still painful to watch" In response to Reply # 7
Desus struggled with the monologue. You could tell me was reading the prompter too fast sometimes. Sounded like he was ahead of the joke and the graphics that went with the joke. But he was fine on the interviews. Obviously it was a more structured interview than his other shows. But he was fine there. Give him a few more days on that and I bet he would murder it. All in all he did good.
November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!
8. "Exactly. Each host has their own niche but that is within the" In response to Reply # 6
existing niche template of late night shows. So they have to go through an awkward period of finding the balance of the template that the late night audience expects, while still doing what they are best at which means finding something new to fit in. Like a certain type of sketches, or certain topic categories for the monologues, interaction with the band, etc.
All that being said I feel like the most difficult aspect is interviewing guests, and Desus being so good at that is a GREAT sign…
9. "i feel like the interviewing guest is easy. its just a conversation" In response to Reply # 8
The monologue shit is stand up except its reading. Desus was peeled to that teleprompter.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
11. "its not just interviewing" In response to Reply # 9
you have to move the conversation along. You have to give them their time to promote their projects. All the while a guy with cue cards is telling you 1 minute, 30 seconds, wrap it up. Throw to commercial. Its definitely more than a conversation.
November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!
14. "Exactly - interviewing on a network late night show is VERY different " In response to Reply # 11
from interviewing on a podcast or their Showtime show. The "conversation" is much more scripted which means it takes a good amount of skill to make it SEEM conversational, all while keeping both yourself and the guest timeboxed to fit the commercial breaks and project promotion.
As mentioned below the monologues are also very difficult - completely different from a standup slot. The jokes are more scripted but you gotta make it FEEL like you're just doing a standup bit, all while keeping it fresh 5 nights a week.
You also can't be too niche-specific in terms of your audience - and honestly that might be the toughest aspect. Because the built-in late night audience is a much older demographic than someone relatively young would be used to catering to...trying to be yourself while not alienating that audience, and being in network meetings where they are showing data on exactly when certain demographics turned the channel? It's gonna be SUPER awkward until you hit your stride.
13. "I think that monologue is one of the hardest things in show business." In response to Reply # 9 Tue Aug-16-22 11:21 PM by Triptych
First of all producing a new one every day. You're probably throwing out like 80% of jokes. But first you have to try them all. Jokes are performed for the live mid-afternoon coastal studio audience. But has to play to a nationwide late-night audience.
Standup is hard enough but trying to also be to-the-minute topical is incredibly hard.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86665 posts
Wed Aug-17-22 10:50 AM
24. "Correct. The monologue is borderline impossible." In response to Reply # 13
Even guys like Conan and Letterman have a few jokes per monologue tank, for the most part-- they just got more comfortable with how to handle when the jokes tank, lol.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86665 posts
Wed Aug-17-22 10:49 AM
23. "Unsurprisingly really good at the interviews." In response to Reply # 2
The monologue was stilted and nervous, but that's also true of literally *every* host when they started doing monologues. He loosened up when interacting with Guillermo. Just shows how much of his strength lies in interaction-- which honestly would make him a really good talk show host. If a Desus show said fuck the monologues and focused on doing on-the-street filmed segments and loose, funny interviews? It'd be really, really strong imo.
27. "Yup. And honestly - not sure why more haven’t tried that. " In response to Reply # 23
The monologue, when done well, can be good. But it’s an artifact of a time when social media didn’t exist. It feels archaic at this point. And of course - a monologue that really hits will always be welcome - but usually that has some sort of thematic arc to it, or is some impassioned point the host is trying to make, etc. Jokes of the day that was just feels like old TV at this point. We’ve all but gotten rid of traffic on the radio - why is this any different?
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86665 posts
Wed Aug-17-22 03:25 PM
28. "Completely agreed. It's a relic. " In response to Reply # 27
Maybe there's a way to revolutionize-- like, hire the 10-15 funniest tweeters on earth, have them tweet the jokes as the events happen from your show's account, and do a monologue of those jokes later for the crowd that watches TV/doesn't watch Twitter?
But yeah, any jokes in a monologue will *always* be late now-- and since it was always a little stiff, why not just do away with the thing entirely? Even if it's an impassioned point monologue, they could always do that at the desk or make it a special occasion standing monologue. But since, like 95% of themed monologues these days are just "Orange Man Bad/Government Bad" things, and nearly every joke in that oeuvre is insanely played out already... I just don't know why the monologue needs to exist anymore, lol.
29. "TONS of shows don't have monologues" In response to Reply # 28
Most 11:00am-12:30am shows do because the audience wants them, because it is familiar and it meets their expectations.
Many shows from Dick Cavett to Tom Snyder to Greg Kinnear to Carson Daly have skipped a monolog but none of those programs were able to fill the traditional late night time slot in the past 20 years. And I don't recall any 11:30 show not having a monolog.
> I just don't know why the monologue needs to exist anymore, lol. Just don't watch programs with it - they'll get the message if enough people do.
Frankly the interviews on 99% of these shows are shallow and skippable - when Seth was doing longer pieces starting at the "desk' I thought it was better.
And bad orange man is *actually* affecting the country daily - it'd be weird if people DIDN'T talk about it.
I mean turn on Bill Maher abut 10 minutes in - he talks about orange bad man for a few minutes then really lays into the real issues like how fat shaming needs a revival, or Hollywood casting can never be criticized. or watch the 'E' channel for shallow talk about upcoming projects.
Wait, I found the perfect show - Entertainers with Byron Allen
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86665 posts
Mon Aug-22-22 11:35 AM
37. "This took a strange turn." In response to Reply # 29
>And bad orange man is *actually* affecting the country daily - >it'd be weird if people DIDN'T talk about it. > >I mean turn on Bill Maher abut 10 minutes in - he talks about >orange bad man for a few minutes then really lays into the >real issues like how fat shaming needs a revival, or Hollywood >casting can never be criticized. or watch the 'E' channel for >shallow talk about upcoming projects.
It's weird that you thought me hating the majority of late night jokes about how Trump is Orange Man means I want to listen to Bill Maher or prefer E Channel stuff. Anyone who hates hacky material is a loathsome, shallow piece of shit now?
Funny you mention I should just watch "shallow talk" instead, because the primary reason I hate late night jokes about Trump is precisely *because* they're so shallow. The vast, vast majority of late night material about Trump or Republicans in general is the most low-hanging fruit material on Earth and contributes absolutely nothing to discourse. It's the TV equivalent of reading tweets that end with "RT if you agree!"
I'd love nothing more than clever jokes with fresh perspectives about Trump. And comics who find those angles are out there... they're just not on late-night TV. There, we get Colbert calling him "Cheeto-in-Chief", Jimmy Kimmel making fat jokes, and James Corden singing song parodies about how stupid Trump is.
And maybe, every once in a while, they nail a new, fresh bit about the Republicans, sure, it's possible. Maybe they're the ones falling through the cracks, maybe I just haven't seen them. But the ones that go viral are basically always cringe.
Anyway. I think you should re-examine the idea that anyone who cringes over "Orange Man" jokes is a terrible piece of shit person who likes Bill Maher or wants politics out of comedy. Because neither of those things are true at all, lol.
38. "I didn't mean it that way about you" In response to Reply # 37
>Anyway. I think you should re-examine the idea that anyone who >cringes over "Orange Man" jokes is a terrible piece of shit >person who likes Bill Maher or wants politics out of comedy. >Because neither of those things are true at all, lol.
I'm just saying that the format of late night shows right now *IS*: shallow to medium depth jokes about current events - And that *is* Bad Orange Man as much as I wish it wasn't
And THEN shallow to a little less shallow interviews with personalities.
The real action in interviews right now is podcasts - and 99% of podcasts don't have monologues.
But TV interview shows are shallow now and will forever be because they have to see lite beer and prescription drugs.
I'd love to see a show crack the formula - but I don't see a Dick Cavett type show coming back on TV in this format - its now a podcast.
And if you can crack this code I'm sure Worldwide Pants would buy it - as sure as I am that Broadway Video would not.
I think that format in general lends itself to a surface-level entertainment-- even my absolute favorites like Letterman and Conan, and certainly going back to Carson and beyond, rarely got political beyond easy jabs or dug really deep. Instead, the best of them realized that, since it can never really get deep, the best thing to do is to pivot hard into deadpan absurdity. And the more surreal the show gets, the more it feels rebellious against the format.
But yeah, no network talk show is going squeeze too much juice out of the format, *especially* the monologue.
44. "I'm not trying to do Desus vs. Mero wars..." In response to Reply # 40
there was enough of that. But, last week, Mero was on the LeBatard show...I caught the Zoom on Youtube as opposed to listening on my phone. Dude got some chops, man. He was funny as shit. I'm obviously no talent evaluator, but he just seems more suited for a non-scripted type of setup...sort of the way Bomani is SO much better when he's just being Bomani, talking to you.
...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft
45. "I thought the same thing last night, but Hasan is probably a better fit" In response to Reply # 40
It wouldn't quite be plug and play, but the transition would be easier if they wanted to keep the theme of The Daily Show.
<-- Dave Thomas knows what's up... __________________________
Jay: Look here homie, any nigga can get a hit record. This here is about respect. Game: Like Gladys Knight. Jay: Aretha Franklin. Game: Word, I like her too. Jay: Nigga...
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
General Discussion
