11 anti-talk shows that broke late night
Tonight's lineup includes The Eric Andre Show, Fernwood 2 Night, Ziwe, and many more!
TV Features Barack Obama
Late-night talk shows are a comfort watch. Designed to put adults to bed after our daily fill of the horror and mayhem of living a life, the form allows us to process the daily news with a light chuckle before bedtime. Luminaries like Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, and, yes, even Jimmy Fallon tuck us into bed with a couple of jokes, a few songs, and the world’s most beautiful people gabbing about their upcoming projects. If nightly talk shows are visual melatonin, anti-talk shows are visual bath salts.
A slippery genre if there ever was one, anti-talk shows are a loose amalgamation of comedies that expose and explode the tired trappings of the aforementioned format by cranking up the violence and confrontation and poisoning joke structures with irony, immaturity, silliness, or all of the above. Often, these series will parody or adapt the tropes from a sitcom, a sketch show, or an actual talk show where celebrities may or may not know what they’re getting into. Moreover, deconstruction is the name of the game, where the rules and conventions are the setups, and how those tropes can be bent and twisted is the punchline.
However, this isn’t a list of the best anti-talk shows. Instead, this is a collection of shows that defined the anti-talk show in some way or another, giving the form a new ball to play with, pushing the boundaries a little further, and expressing the generation’s exhaustion with the old guard. Some are narrative series, others are spin-offs, and one is just straight-up a real talk show. These are the series that poked holes in late-night traditions, made guests and the hosts look like crap, and amused by allowing chaos to reign. To watch an anti-talk show is to watch a performance on the edge of collapse because sometimes they do.
With The Eric Andre Show returning for a sixth season on June 4, we’re diving into the shows that brought us there, so stick around. We’ve got a great, chronologically ordered slideshow for you all. You may now flip.
39 Comments
Checked table of contents, no Craig Ferguson, no reason to go any further.
This is the first thing I looked for too. It had all the trappings of a “normal” talk show, but I don’t remember any interview segment that didn’t go completely off the rails, most of them immediately.
Which usually took the guest unawares if they had never seen the show before appearing on it. The best example is when Ricky Gervais was the guest (I believe it was during the last season). He couldn’t stop laughing out of shock, “the greatest chat show ever” was his response.
What a tedious little shit he is.
That sums up Eric Andre too.
Huge miss by the author of this piece. Craig’s show was complete lunacy. Robot skeleton sidekick with a Morgan Freeman voice? Check. A running Secretariat gag that was a terrible “two guys in a horse costume”? Of course.A filthy mouthed rabbit puppet? Yep.
A choice to end the interview ith an awkward pause or a mouth harp? You betcha.Kristen Bell as the world’s best late night guest/improv partner? YES.
A filthy mouthed rabbit puppet?
Hasn’t that been done?
I agree. Kristen Bell is great.
David Letterman,
Would Ali G count? My favourite one of his is when he asks a vegetarian if she’d eat a chicken if someone put a gun to her head; it’s such a stupid-clever joke.Related, The Day Today/Brass Eye, while not late night talk show parodies, did often have segments that fit the bill. All scripted and fictional guests, but wonderfully mean. “You’re wrong and you’re a grotesquely ugly freak.”
‘Dey put a man on ‘de moon; does you fink they’ll ever put a man on ‘de sun?
I don’t see why not. Cohen’s ability to continue getting guests for Ali G went on so much longer than it had any right to, and he sure as hell made people look dumb, horrible or some combination at every opportunity.
Very few came out of it well as they sought to pander to “the yoof”. Tony Benn was one who picked up on everything offensive Ali G said.My favourite was his trip to Northern Ireland.“Maybe it’s a stereotype but they say the Irish is always up for the crack”“In Ireland craic means having a good time.”“For real, but after the high there’s a low.”
The Day Today actually launched Partridge as a sports reporter before Knowing Me, Knowing You.
For those who don’t know what they’re missing with regards to Brass Eye:
One Man’s Trash is easily one of the greatest and most magical moments in comedy television
Ok, sincerely, I’m quite impressed Fernwood 2 Night is actually on the list, kudos to you! Barth Gimble’s pausing smile still lives etched in my brain. Also, Letterman starting out in a daytime slot, that was memorable with his Coffee Time Theatre.
The best shows, like Letterman, start with the host wanting to amuse himself first and foremost. Like Conan inviting Norm Macdonald on for no apparent reason just so he could laugh his ass off for five minutes. Plus every now and then someone’s film career get sacrificed as a bonus, like poor Courtney Thorne-Smith’s.
Conan has continued that rich tradition with his podcast. His two interviews with Kevin Nealon are literally just the two of them insulting each other and talking over each other for an hour. Dana Carvey’s are similarly unhinged.
Fernwood 2-Night used to be part of the Nick at Nite lineup many years ago, and I fell in love with it. I really wish they would pivot away from giving us bland 2000s sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens and go back to mining the rich lode of older stuff that isn’t on anywhere else. People who missed out on Fernwood 2-Night missed a true gem.
No credit given to Merrill Markoe? For shame.
I didn’t expect “Primetime Glick” to make the list, and I was correct, alas.
If we’re including talkshow comedies, you have to save a place of honor for Man to Man with Dean Learner, which was a semi-sequel to Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, where Richard Ayoade’s Dean Learner character hosted a sleezy late night chat show where all the guest characters are played by Matthew Holness.
The first show’s guest was none other than horror author, visionary, plus actor Garth Marenghi himself, but the show really took off once we got to see some of Holness’ other characters including former race car driver Steve Pising, sci-fi actor Glynn Nimron, suicidaly depressed folk guitarist Merriman Weir, “master of the psychic arts” Amir Chanan, and infamous horror actor Randolph Caer… who dies shortly before the episode is due to air, so all of Holness’ other characters from the previous five episodes appear to pay their respects.
No Primetime Glick?Bullshit.
Michael McKean’s harpist band leader was just the perfect touch!
Actually, that is a really good pick!
Oh come on. No Craig Ferguson? “Deconstructing late night TV”? What other talk show featured puppets, a pantomime horse, and a gay robot skeleton? Absolutely the funniest show on late night and I still miss it.
Yeah, it should have been #1. Not even mentioning it is baffling beyond comprehension. The only late night show that I would ever make a point to watch. It basically kept me going when I had to spend a year in a hospital bed. I miss it too. All the time.
Whoa. No Hangin’ with Dr. Z.???
I came here to mention the good doctor and am pleased to see you did.
Mrs. Merton and Dame Edna should be on here (in addition the the aforementioned Craig Ferguson and Primetime Glick.)
Nightstand with Dick Dietrick. Just sayin’.
Ziwe was just a twitter thread on TV.
Chelsea Lately Erasure
It’s weird that this list includes Between Two Ferns, which was a web series that never aired on TV, but not Galifianakis’ ACTUAL late night talk show, Late World with Zach. Or am I the only person who remembers that?
I was just catching up on what Chris Gethard’s been doing today on a drive and they mentioned this episode. Such an amazing episode out of a stupid premise, which is just par for the course for that show. Sandwich Day, Eat More Butts, Belly Burrito, How would you fight me, and so many more great episodes.
I’ve watched the clip of Tom Waits on Fernwood for decades now, one of the funniest talk show moments i’ve ever seen.
That description of Ziwe’s show does it such a disservice. They make her sound like some kind of wokescold. The show is honest to god actually funny and not the kind of boring, flattened idpol they’re making it sound like.
The best thing this article does is make the case for shows that I find bland and unoriginal.
The problem about Gary Shandling is that his format looks outdated in retrospect. There are plenty of shows starring actors as themselves, that it strikes me as vain at this point. I understand Larry Sanders was the first.
Eric Andre does look exciting though
Other egregious omissions:Late World with ZachNight After Night with Allan Havey
Space Ghost where they sing heavy metal songs broke me and my friends one night at 12:30 at night. We couldn’t stop laughing, fuck I’m laughing typing this right now and that was around 25+ years ago!