Late Night Last Week: Lewis Black Warns Screaming Doesn’t Change Anything

By Will DiGravio  |  December 9, 2024 | 1:00pm
TV Features late night
Late Night Last Week: Lewis Black Warns Screaming Doesn’t Change Anything
Listen to this article

Every Monday,  ​​​​​Late Night Last Week highlights some of the more notable segments from the previous week of late night television. This week, Lewis Black responds to the left’s response to the election, Dick Van Dyke debuts a new music video, Taylor Tomlinson tackles “Glicked,” and Seth Meyers takes The Colbert Questionert. 

“Call me old fashioned, but if you have a breakdown on the subway, you’re supposed to jump in front of it.” Such was the response of Lewis Black on The Daily Show last week, to the news of New Yorkers writing down their feelings about the presidential election on post-it notes in the underground transit system. “Subway walls are for only two things,” Black advised. “Mysterious piss stains and ads for Shen Yun.”

Since the election, The Daily Show and its Monday host, Jon Stewart, have emerged as a voice for those on the left deeply frustrated by the Democratic establishment’s response to the past month, roasting things like the proverbial bending of the knee from cable news talking heads, to the media’s history of failed predictions.

Stewart, as he so often does, takes on the more powerful members of that establishment. Black, however, was more than happy to take on the faceless masses. And the live audience at The Daily Show loved it.

Black responded to the news of a surge in “rage room” bookings following the election. For the uninitiated, a rage room is where you pay money to smash trash you could otherwise just find on the street. “Democrats can’t even get mad correctly,” Black observed. “Conservatives storm the capitol, meanwhile Democrats are like, ‘Are these crowbars ethically sourced?’”

The monologue recalled Stewart’s two weeks ago, in which he took the Democratic establishment to task for not merely bending the knee, but also failing to consistently take action when they have power. Stewart’s point: they make excuses for doing nothing and instead channel their energy into symbolic, worthless gestures.

Black, in his own way, called attention to this phenomenon. “Trust me, screaming doesn’t change anything,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for forty years and I’m still at the same fucking desk! God, I’ve wasted my life!”

Dick Van Dyke On His New Music Video

Need I really say more? The man whose name embodies song and laughs and the medium of television itself is set to turn 99 this week, on December 13. The studio audience at Jimmy Kimmel Live! roared when Dick Van Dyke entered the stage with Chris Martin, of Coldplay fame, to discuss their new music video, “All My Love,” which will be released on his birthday.

Everything about Van Dyke remains elegant. From his laugh and smile, to the way his cane remains perched on his chair throughout the conversation. Martin shared memories of recording the video at Van Dyke’s home, and sweetly laughed about seeing him interact with his children, who are in their 70s. “I’m old enough to be Joe Biden’s father,” Van Dyke said.

Taylor Tomlinson Holds Space For the Wicked Press Tour

Those familiar with After Midnight, the show immediately following The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, know that it is more of a hybrid program, equal parts late night talk and game show. Thus, on most evenings, host Taylor Tomlinson delivers a relatively quick monologue when compared to the hosts of other programs. And that’s a shame. Because Tomlinson’s monologues are consistently among the best in late night, often aimed at a younger, more online audience. Most nights, the monologues are under five minutes, leaving little room for the audience to actually settle into the act.

But last Monday, on December 2, Tomlinson, who is also a stand-up, delivered a monologue that came in at just under nine minutes, focusing mostly on the release of Wicked and Gladiator 2, or, as it has come to be known, “Glicked,” the latest attempt to recapture the craze of last summer’s “Barbenheimer.” “Or, as I like to call it, the straight couple’s compromise,” Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson also had fun with clips from the Wicked press tour, including interviews with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande talking about the intense emotional response fans have had to the movie, including “holding space” for the film. She also noted more silly interviews with Jonathan Bailey and Jeff Goldblum, most of which center on the former’s thighs and short shorts, with the latter playing the role of hype man.

“I’ve got to say, it is really refreshing that the women on the press tour are getting really thoughtful questions while the men are the ones getting straight up objectified,” Tomlinson said.

Seth Meyers Takes the Colbert Questionert

In this column, we love when late night hosts appear on each other’s programs. Usually it means they are exercising a clause in their contract to promote something on another network, but it is still fun nonetheless. Earlier this year, Seth Meyers made his first appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, during which he discussed his new Max stand-up special, Dead Man Walking. 

Last week, the program aired a previously recorded segment with Meyers participating in one of the show’s ongoing segments, “The Colbert Questionert,” during which guests are asked a series of questions “scientifically” designed to achieve maximum intimacy between host, guest, and viewer. Colbert asked Meyers about his favorite sandwich, the first concert he attended, and to name the scariest animal. “I think a platypus,” Meyers said with little hesitation. “Cuz like, what? What are you? What’s your game here?”

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.

 
Join the discussion...