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And so, after many, many goodbyes and remembrances and a staggering amount of star power parading across his stage over the past few weeks, David Letterman finally and actually departed from the Late Show desk. Personally, I did not grow up with Letterman. We were not a late-night TV household. But weirdly and suddenly the thought of someone else sitting in his chair makes me sad. Because it is his chair. It will be great to see Stephen Colbert again, and I don't know if it's just empathy for the many, many other who do feel a personal attachment to Dave, but I'll miss knowing he’s there, even if I don't know why.
But besides the man himself and the many tributes in his name, there were a lot of cool people on the chats this week. People like Susan Sarandon, Nick Offerman (swoon!), Janelle "The Electric Lady" Monáe, Louis C.K., and the one and only and forever Queen Latifah. We've got quite a lot of laughs and even a few songs (thanks, Peter Dinklage!). So let's get crackin!
As they say, #ThanksDave. And If you want to hear Jimmy Fallon give his tribute to the legend of Letterman check here. If you're more of a Conan kind of person, you can watch his loving send off as well.
Nick Offerman and Hugh Jackman are teammates in this round of password, and his side comment about their team name being "JackOfferman" is sadly lost in the hum of laughter. This is a weird assemblage of celebs, but as with all of Jimmy's silly late-night gags, it comes off in delightful fashion. (Oh, and if you want to see more of one of the world's sexiest men, and we mean Nick Offerman, he talks about his new book here as well as his knee injury from dancing on stage with his amazing wife, Megan Mullally, here; and everything he says makes us want to move in a sexy way.)
This almost-10-minute sketch is weird in such a satisfying way. But if you're more in the mood for weird in an uncomfortable way, check out James Corden's carpool karaoke with The Biebs. Watching Corden be able to hit the high notes from Bieber's early catalogue while Justin can't is really... something. And a strange reminder of the passage of time. Also, enough with the mumbling, Justin! SPEAK UP, BOY!
Ohhhhhhhh man! Well, that's Louis!
This woman! THIS. WOMAN. Sing to us, Janelle. Sing to us always. You crazy android.
"Babies & Bustiers" was a little ham-fisted, but "Doggy Daycare" stood out as the highlight of this week's Inside Amy Schumer for us. It's really too bad about that woman's Dachshund being shot by police on the streets of St. Louis.
Letterman's finale show was very well handled, and we're not surprised. There was the celeb-stacked Top 10 List and that charming opening monologue, but this montage of Dave's history with kids on his show was our favorite part. There's a weirdly perfect synergy between comedians and kids, because comedians don't want to be mean to the little ones, and kids aren't conditioned to take gruff from anyone. So it works out really well! The "Jingle Bells" kid is clearly the best person here and we hope Dave hired him to the writer's room on the spot.
Once the Queen, always the Queen. It's really too bad Latifah doesn't have her talk show anymore, because this lady has charm and personality oozing from every pore. And also, if you want to see another badass woman who showed up for Fallon this week, watch the eternal Carla Gugino talk about her history of TV cameos in the early 1990s and school Jimmy in how to do a proper "military style" pushup in front of a whole lot of military men and women.
The level of love this blog has for Anna Kendrick is so grossly out of proportion with her actual superstardom. Weirdly, Kendrick is still kind of a niche figure, with the (tremendous and fun) Pitch Perfect movies being her primary claim to fame. Well, that and the Oscar nomination. But for real, this lady is the rare Hollywood triple threat of singing, dancing, and serious acting talent. And she's funny as hell. And so, so very small. Also, we didn't understand at all why James Corden was picked to take over the Late Late slot after Craig Ferguson, but obviously with the popularity of Glee, Pitch Perfect, and so-many-things-song-related, his musical ability must have clinched the job for him. Time to start fist fights over Karaoke Fantasy League picks.
Bruce Chandling is likely the most uncomfortable recurring character SNL, even more than Beck Bennett's "Boss Baby" bit—which is truly awful and should be discontinued. And seeing him play the foil to Louis' sad-sack everyman persona feels like good-miserable colliding with bad-miserable and makes for strange late-night performance art.
Confession: We have not done our research as to what charitable entity Red Nose Day actually benefits. We should. We really should. But... the organizers of this day should also do a hell of a lot better job just advertising what's going on. Don't get us wrong, we love, love, love Anna Kendrick playing a sassy little Indiana Jones. And Peter Dinklage giving us the closest thing we'll ever have to a Joss Whedon-esque musical episode of Game of Thrones is fantastic. We are not ungrateful. But also... why? Discuss as you listen.
