I hope they don’t consider Michael Che. He’s kind of a d*ck. I do have a mild crush on Desi, so I’m rooting for her.
The only one I object to so far is Franken. He completely let his former co-worker Graham get away with bullshit. Stewart or Noah would have shut that “Trump secured the border” nonsense right away. Franken let him repeat it, and other untruths. Also, Franken’s delivery was too low key. I though Leslie Jones’ energy was great! I love the different perspectives the guest hosts brought. I am loving Jordan Klepner this week. I am deeply disappointed that the ratings reflect a different reality.
I’m the exact opposite. Television, as Marshall McCluhan said many decades ago, is a cool medium. Talk show hosts - successful mainstream talk show hosts - don’t scream and shout. They let the jokes roll off them, a beat ahead of the audience. Johnny Carson was a master of it. Stephen Colbert works more like Carson than any other recent host (The Late Show not the parody Colbert Report) and once he got the knack it all came together, especially with the desperately pleading “please like me” Jimmy Fallon opposite him.
Leslie Jones shouted the loudest as guest host, so I thought her the weakest. I think she was the only host not to boost her ratings after the first show, except for Kal Penn who had Obama on the first night. Her energy worked on SNL but that’s a totally different kind of show.
De gudtibus, but TDS needs to be sharp. Contrast Franken’s interview of Sen. Graham with Jon Stewart’s recent interview of a red state legislator who wants to ban drag shows to “protect” children, and loosen gun laws - which actually leads to children dying. If Franken is going to defer to his pals to maintain access, he can host one of the Sunday news talk shows. If Franken is going to let BS GOP talking points go unchallenged, he can host on Fox.
I love Leslie Jones, but I agree with this completely.
TDS films the hosts answering questions from the audience and puts them up on YouTube as After the Cut.
Leslie Jones is great in this one. Sincere, informative, and just the right burst of energy at the end. Everything she should have been during the show itself.
So far I’m liking the Jordan Klepper/Roy Wood/Desi Lydic combo.
This past week with Desi at the desk and Roy and Jordan as correspondents felt like the show when Trevor Noah was there, but without him. It was comfortably familiar. I’m afraid they’re looking in a different direction, but I hope not.
I really liked Jordan Klepper’s turn at the desk. His discussion of what manhood means, and should mean, was really powerful. Especially coming from the Dad of a 2 year old. I also like Desi Lydic’s performance this week. Somehow she makes literally winking at the camera work. I like how she’s highlighting women’s issues, and women creators. I’m looking forward to the next correspondent in the line up. Any of the folks who’ve rotated in could work, IMO, except for the soporific guy I griped about upthread.
I wonder how much the guest hosts pick their guests. Some of the hosts, I was looking forward to them. And then their week rolled around and their guests were tiresome and dull and I turned them off early. Should bad guests count against a host?
I’ve only seen clips but the latest ones with Desi Lydic are quite impressive.
I was not surprised, but Desi Lydic was really good. Just the right balance of seriousness with a literal wink to the audience. Lots of clever bits. And good interviews!
Oh, and her final moment of zen was so cute.
Roy Wood, Jr. did the White House Correspondents Dinner last night and near the end, he got rather serious talking about his Dad(a Vietnam reporter with a Black troop) and his Mom(stood up for equality and a professor).
I think he really could do the serious side if he hosted. He wasn’t the funniest comedian or roast we’ve seen there(nothing will ever, ever beat Colbert), but he was fun.
Desi farted while interviewing Jamil.
And she handled beautifully bc nobody was talking about it the next day. Which I found impressive bc usually the haters would jump on something like this.
Wood’s set was in the bottom half to be sure. Very scattershot and too few hardhitting lines. Trevor Noah did a great job last year by comparison. Can’t be good for Wood’s hopes for the desk.
Biden was pretty funny, except that he kept stumbling over lines. And I’m sure I first heard some of the jokes on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Looking at Wikipedia, I’m stunned to see that Richard Pryor was the guest in 1968 and George Carlin in 1970. I can’t imagine they had cameras at the dinners in those days, but watching those routines would be a thrill.
Those years pre-dated the sea-changes that those two comics underwent in their routines and public personas. Pryor, in particular, was still working very tame in 1968; he was basically a somewhat more hip version of Bill Cosby at that point.
Expanding on that, Pryor had his famous onstage “epiphany” in September of 1967, only a few months before the WHCD is usually held. Of course, it took him a while to create the new act for which he became famous and is now remembered.
Oh sure. No way could they approach the levels that more recent roasters have considered acceptable.
But 1968 and 1970 were during Nam. Johnson had dropped out of the race only two months earlier. MLK was shot a week after Johnson’s speech. They couldn’t have avoided saying something of note.
Unless they weren’t there. The real issue is that I think Wikipedia is wrong. I find no evidence that Richard Pryor was the guest in 1968. Instead, Betty Beale’s syndicated column mentions Cactus Pryor, the program director of KTBC Austin, dressing up as a British author to make humorous comments. On RFK’s letter of support to Johnson, “It was like Brutus offering Caesar a bandaid.” Cactus’ real first name was indeed Richard. Took me one minute of research.
And a search of newspaper archives puts Bob Hope as the guest in 1970. He called Martha Mitchell “the fastest tongue in the East.” Topical humor. “New song star” Eloise Laws performed. Nixon wasn’t there. He was greeting the returning astronauts of Apollo 13. Better optics.
Wikipedia is a fantastic indispensable source. But everything in it needs to be double-checked.
Roy Wood, Jr. made a great joke referencing NFT’s and how people don’t know what they are.
“We can all see Clarence Thomas. But only one person owns him. That’s an NFT.”
Great joke, perfect reference. I thought he was going to call Clarence Thomas a “non fungible token black”, which is not a joke I’d make as a white guy, but is the kind of joke I’d expect Roy Wood to make. I think it would have gotten laughs.
Anyway, I enjoyed his set, but agree others have done better.
Joe Biden was not great, but now a president gets credit just for, you know, attending and letting people make some fun of him.
That was his best joke. Fortunately, people remember the best jokes.