Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and the Future of Late Night Television

Late night talk shows used to be places considered to be the breeding grounds of new comedy, as their lowered expectations of their time slot would generally free up the host to experiment in more off-the-wall strains of humor. (In fact, this is what Conan O’Brien critical acclaim back when he hosted Late Night, and why so many people love the job that Craig Ferguson does hosting The Late Late Show.) But as these kinds of shows became more popular, and the networks became aware of the significant numbers of middle-Americans who watch these shows because of their earlier airtimes in those time zones, the shows began to temper their humor, in an attempt to reach the largest possible audience base. Yet every once in a while, some hosts will break past these unofficial barriers, by taking part in some cross-show bits/sketches.

Creating a “narrative” of sorts across multiple late night talk shows is an inherently risky move. If the audience doesn’t like the story being told, or if they don’t like all of the shows that are participating, viewers may lose out on the effect of following along with all of these shows, or the shows may lose audience members if they decided to tune out for a few days/weeks in order to avoid the mess all together.

Of course, some the ultimate effect can be sheer comedy brilliance, and reaffirm that pulling such stunts can be effective ways to lure in viewers, as what happened with the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert/Conan O’Brien collaboration, “Who Made Huckabee?”

This past week, Colbert and Jimmy Fallon started a similar feud wherein Colbert pledged a donation on behalf of his Best-Friend-For-Six-Months, Fallon, and Fallon retaliated by saying that he pledged, on behalf of Colbert, that the faux-pundit would appear and sing Rebecca Black’s “Friday” when Fallon raised the money through DonorsChoose.org (Though technically, all of this really started two weeks ago, when Fallon and Colbert “battled” over whose Ben & Jerry’s flavor was better, as moment I shared on this blog.) The video clip below explains all of this in full:

Of course, Colbert, the team player that he is, did show up and sing “Friday” with the help of The Roots and some other special guests, in a rendition that put the original to shame. (Of course, the original version was already shameful to begin with, and since Colbert can’t improve the awful lyrics, nobody would really call his cover “good,” but you get my point.)

At first glance, I’m sure a majority of people will see this and think, “So what? This has been done before.” And indeed is has, in the aforementioned “Huckabee” collaboration. But that bit was done during the 2007-2008 writers strike, and you can almost feel the desperation that caused the host to latch on this (admittedly great) idea. There was something inherently simple about these hosts calling each other names and (mock) beating the shit out of one another. But this more recent Colbert/Fallon collaboration was done with the assistance of writers. And while the writer’s influence this time around didn’t really add anything to the preceding, that’s not what makes this collaboration important. Rather, Colbert and Fallon (and their writers) have proven that this is still a comedically viable form of entertainment, something that people will watch.  (Of course, this was all done so that these two hosts could rally their respective audiences into donating money to a worthy cause, which also proves that such moves can have a purpose beyond entertainment. And while I respect these two shows for using their star power in such a way, that’s not really my point here.)

And if this is a new-ish, viable form of comedy can be entertaining, just imagine the possibilities if the writers of the show really applies themselves to the next cross-show endeavor. (I am currently working under the theory that Colbert and Fallon threw this latest stunt together after meeting for the ice-cream showdown, that it was all essentially planned during Colbert’s week off.) We could see shows new veins of comedy when unlikely shows pair up; what if The Soup met Lopez Tonight? What if Conan and Ferguson engaged in cross-show banter? Or, what if a game celebrity dropped by five different shows within a week, and each interview played off of the one(s) that preceded it?

I’m not saying that these forms of comedy are something that I would want to experience every week, or even every month. But often times, late night shows fall into standard monologue-comedy bit-guest-guest-musical/comedy act routine, and the predictability of it all just becomes boring. Remember when Conon premiered his version of the Tonight Show, and he went 30 minutes before throwing to commercial, having done two prerecorded bits with a lengthy monologue in between?

That’s the kind of formula-busting action I want to see from late night hosts. Sure, network executives can worry all they want about how most Americans wouldn’t “get” it, how they would all turn off their sets, or turn over to Jay Leno (because let’s face it, that man’s never going to change up his show). But from my experience, the hardcore fans, the ones that make up a majority of a late night show’s audience, watch because they like the humor that the show/host displays, and they would be willing to go along with anything experimental, as long as it was still funny.

I am not calling for a complete overhaul of the late night formula. The structure they have now works, for the most part, and I can usually count on these shows being entertaining enough that I don’t regret watching them. But what I am asking for is that these performers not be content with the standard formula, that they – every once and while – change things up a bit. And it is in these cross-show stunts that I think the key to changing up the formula lies. For if these shows start increasing their collaboration with one another, the creative sparks will fly, and who knows what kind of entertainment they could think up?