The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015-????)

Being just old enough to remember Carson's The Great Carnac, GTFO here with that hat bit.

That was from the first week. They haven't revisited it.

they just did!

he's terrible interviewing actors. he obviously just doesn't really care. which is kind of admirable, actually, but makes for awkward television.

yeah i've noticed an uptick in him having to break eye contact with the interview subject to, like, read the titles of their most popular movies off of a card on his desk, or really well known facts. i mean, i guess him being an actor doesn't mean he necessarily cares about keeping up with TV shows/movies but it's kinda surprising if he's just totally indifferent to that stuff.

"it says here... you're on a show... that's about... people... who live in chicago. what's that like?"

he asks a lot of versions of, "wow, you're really successful. that must be exciting!"

i like his somewhat self-conscious and stagey attempts at sincerity/authenticity/warts-and-all/what have you. he's got a long ways to go to lettermanland, but his space is a nice one.

i still don't find him funny in more than the slightest, if that

He's great at this kind of sketch comedy, maybe moreso than he is being himself:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/video/b_HvqaVOaU6Jzi__Kd2I56QknYWkmSdo/daniel-craig-reveals-a-mind-blowing-scene-from-spectre-/

Wait, so the singers for this band Lucius are chicken ladies?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/business/media/letting-stephen-colbert-be-stephen-colbert-whoever-that-is.html

looks like a new showrunner has been brought in. i haven't watched since the first week or two (thought i'd give him a year or so to figure things out) - has anyone else?

I've been watching semi-regularly. It's alright! Not much chemistry with the bandleader/band, who doesn't seem like he has any banter skills at all. Shame.

CBS is like some convenience store bathroom you need to ask for a key to get into, but the cashier is fighting with his girlfriend on the phone so you just decide to use a bush outside (Hulu)

Reading that article, I keep hearing Garry Marshall as Sumner Redstone.

Not much chemistry with the bandleader/band

I don't know who decided on Baptiste and Stay Human, but yeah, weird fit for the show and even the moments where they almost achieve an amusing anti-chemistry don't quite make it. I like the show overall but it's so mediocre compared to the Report, part of which is just a function of format and time slot, obviously.

I thought he decided on them, didn't he? In the podcast he said that the way Stay Human interacted with the Report audience made Colbert think they would be a good fit for the show. I feel like Colbert has overestimated the extent to which the live experience bleeds through to the audience at home. Any time I watch it, I feel like I'm missing a great blues gig that keeps being interrupted by dull chat.

the band def. seem to exist in a different show altogether. there are these awkward moments in the would-be "repartee" with batiste where you realize they don't know each other at all. they don't have enough camraderie to even engage in the sort of gentle ribbing/roasting that seems an essential part of the dynamic for a contemporary talk show host/bandleader.

i mean, i don't actually expect coworkers to be best friends, but at least jimmy fallon and questlove at least give the impression that they know and like each other enough to needle each other in a mildly entertaining way.

the show i wonder about how is seth meyers'. does that show have /any/ fan base? does anyone watch it?

I watch it. It's good. They basically reset him to where he's doing a Weekend Update type opening, he has a few good bits.

Yeah, the few times I've watched Seth's show since they put him back behind the desk for most of the opening half of the show (WU style), it's been a lot better than it was when it began. I still don't think he actually enjoys music in any way, though, and his band full of 90s indie rock pensioners plays the limpest, most polite music in late night.

Every once in a while I catch Kimmel's show and, while it's cool that his bandleader is also his childhood BFF, they don't act any more familiar with each other than Fallon and Quest typically do.

I've been watching more Conan recently than I have in quite a while, mostly because I'm still not that into Trevor Noah, and Conan is still basically the Conan of 8-10 years ago when the clock was winding down on Late Night—except now it's more sad than comically awkward, there's way less interplay with the band (which was always one of my favorite parts of his old Late Night show).

I think Conan's gotten better lately, marginally. There's been some dark/weird shit that kind of reminds me of his heyday; he should realize he's probably not going to lose his audience and just do whatever bizarre bits he wants to.

I still don't think he actually enjoys music in any way, though, and his band full of 90s indie rock pensioners plays the limpest, most polite music in late night.

I totally agree on both accounts! I kind of wish they had a cool booker who would just throw some interesting new bands on (because Seth doesn't care anyway), but it's clearly not a priority. The guest musicians are clearly just an attempt to do the sitting-in thing Fallon does while distracting from Armisen's absence.

can someone tell stephen colbert aussie isn't pronounced awsee

I don't think anyone here knows him.

what's the point of this thread then

The jazz lessons made me laugh.

Colbert's response to Orlando seemed, of all the major talk show hosts, the most scripted, forced, insincere and just... weird. I'm out on this guy.

So do all of these recent Daily Show/Colbert Report tie-ins represent a course correction?

so that Trump-Putin-cock-holster joke by S.C.... standard 'obscene' thing the FCC has a history of investigating, that's just a fact.

(also unfunny and homophobic, but that's allowed)

God deliver us from Dems shouting 'fire' at bullshit while Trumpism runs rampant.

It doesn't scan homophobic to me. If he'd said Trump's mouth was the cock holster for all kinds of dicks, sure, but this was very specifically about Vlad. Context matters.

I don't want to dismiss a homophobic read out of hand, but I've also been somewhat dubious about that claim. The pejorative end of that joke's stick is everything COMING OUT of Trump's mouth.

not gonna do a 1990-vintage argument, jf, but that is soooome bullshit

it's homophobic but mostly it's just not funny

colbert report was good but i have zero interest in his late show. anything is preferable to jimmy fallon though

when all concerned are getting outclassed by kimmel it's time to reconsider the entire concept

Not funny, not homophobic, but forgettable. Nail Trump, as he is, in 4 words or less and you've won immortality on the cheap.

If homos buy into this tempest, they get what's coming to them.

And it is coming to them.

Colbert (and Stewart, for that matter) left their posts at respective peaks but way too early. At least Stewart basically pulled a Letterman, but Colbert immediately shifted into an inferior role hampered by a calcified format. Kimmel seems most comfortable in this role. Fallon found a way to bring it down to his level. But Colbert, it sort of feels like Conan - a gifted guy cast by fate/greed/bad timing into purgatory. It doesn't help that Colbert really romanticizes the more traditional/stodgy aspects of late night TV, but his strengths lie in being more subversive.

i just watch the trump-era monologues and they are totally worth watching. i never see anything else. though i do get really tired of his bandleader's yukking it up during the monologue. cock holster didn't bug me but forced laughter by black bandleader in 2017 does kinda bug me. reminds me of how bad i used to feel for kevin eubanks.

^^ yeah cosign all of that. idk if his show is as good as Kimmel's but the monologues and certain interviews are alright. I do wonder how his old character would have translated into the Trump era, if that would've worked or if it's one of those things that's just beyond parody.

It would have worked because Trump would have totally believed he was real.

last night's episode, which brought back a bunch of ex-Daily Show people, was pretty nice

i noticed they only invited people with a certain.... pigment

Stephen left TDS in 2005. Aasif was the first person of color to be a correspondent and he didn't arrive until 2006, plus he's in Los Angeles now (and, according to his recent appearance on WTF, elbows deep in a project).

Trevor Noah appeared (briefly)

they probably sent invites to everyone he worked with, I imagine?

It would've been funny if only, like, Mo Rocca, Rachael Harris, and Vance Degeneres showed up.

Vance! He was really good. I think.

is it weird that mo rocca is one of the first people i think of when i think of 2004 election era TDS (when the show was most relevant)

i can't actually remember anyone other than him and stewart/colbert/carrell

You tend to not forget about guys named "Mo Rocca"

I had no idea John Oliver was around back then. I thought he came on way later.

apparently mo rocca wasn't even on the show by 2004

(i mean he left in 2003, not that he started after 2004)

he fit in pretty seamlessly with everyone else from that era who went on to have as much success as is possible in comedy, i wonder if he's sad

you know I might've had Mo Rocca and young John Oliver confused

pretty much everyone on the Daily Show kinda fit the same mold back then, didn't they?