LSSC: Season Eight Episode Talk

[ShadowKnight2]

3 hours ago, Marisagf said:

I just tweeted this to the show and Stephen's twitter accounts:

Valentine's Day... is potato.

A few years ago, I found this potato when I was cooking!

Oh please, please, PLEEEEEASE TLS. Show that on tonight's show!

Stephen Colbert did not disappoint in having some fun with the Chinese balloons!

[Bethany]

Nornally I'm nodding along with most of what Stephen says but last night he was wrong when he claimed that Trudeau didn't give the go ahead for that balloon to be shot down as it was done by the US.  That was petty quibbling on Stephen's part and he should know better.  I guess we always get more annoyed when someone we admire gets something wrong but I was not happy, Stephen!

[Annber03]

Thanks, Stephen, now I will not be able to get that "Meatball Ron" song out of my head anytime soon :D.

I do kinda like "Ron DeSanctimonious", though, I have to say :p.

ETA: OMFG, this Boyz II Men bit. I'm DYING XD. This is amazing. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Annber03

[debbie311]

Maybe it's just me, but The Late Show seems to be kind of off to me lately.  Been watching for years (we DVR it) and it used to be funnier, more enjoyable.  I am not sure why ... wonder sometimes if Stephen is tired of doing the show or if they have new writers who are just not that good. He seems to take a lot of time off.

[Medicine Crow]

1 hour ago, debbie311 said:

Maybe it's just me, but The Late Show seems to be kind of off to me lately.  Been watching for years (we DVR it) and it used to be funnier, more enjoyable.  I am not sure why ... wonder sometimes if Stephen is tired of doing the show or if they have new writers who are just not that good. He seems to take a lot of time off.

Totally agree.  I usually watch the monologue of whoever has the guest(s) I want to see, e.g. Kimmel, Fallon or Colbert, but I'm finding Stephen very silly and bland lately.

Also, wasn't impressed with Sarah Silverman's first night on The Daily Show (and I like her).

[SoMuchTV]

I meant to post yesterday - it looks like the audience is no longer masked. That’s new, right?

[shapeshifter]

44 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I meant to post yesterday - it looks like the audience is no longer masked. That’s new, right?

Yes. I noticed too. And also yesterday, when I showed up for a doctor appointment wearing a mask, I was surprised no one in the outer office was wearing one. When I asked, I was told the requirement ended Sunday. This is in NY state. 

[ahisma]

4 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I meant to post yesterday - it looks like the audience is no longer masked. That’s new, right?

Yeah, he mentioned briefly a little while ago that the pandemic restrictions would be ending and how great it would be to see everyone’s faces in the audience. 

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, Medicine Crow said:

I'm finding Stephen very silly and bland lately.
Also, wasn't impressed with Sarah Silverman's first night on The Daily Show (and I like her).

Stephen’s material has always varied with regards to silliness vs. the astute. 
I don’t always love his stuff, but sometimes it’s perfect for me and my sensibilities——other times it’s too gross. 
I suspect this variation in his material gains more viewers but loses Emmys. 
He seems comfortable doing both.

But I did just see Sarah Silverman doing the Daily Show on YouTube and especially appreciated her conversation bit with Dulce Sloan. To me it was intellectually stimulating, and it made me smile——which is my idea of comedy success. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by shapeshifter

[Calvada]

On 2/15/2023 at 1:32 PM, debbie311 said:

Maybe it's just me, but The Late Show seems to be kind of off to me lately.  Been watching for years (we DVR it) and it used to be funnier, more enjoyable.  I am not sure why ... wonder sometimes if Stephen is tired of doing the show or if they have new writers who are just not that good. He seems to take a lot of time off.

I agree.  My biggest issue is with the guest interviews.  I've never thought Stephen was a great interviewer, but I think he's regressing.  If it's not one of his pals, often the interviews are not done smoothly.  I also DVR the show and with 4 shows per week, I usually can get through them in less than 90 minutes.  I watch the monologue and Meanwhile or whatever comedy bit he does, and if there's a musical performance, I will always watch that.  But there's perhaps 2 to 3 interviews each week that I will watch from start to finish. This week I watched every bit of the Monday show with John Oliver and Ron Klain and I realized how rarely I do that.  

[lurkerbee]

I saw during last night’s show that Harry will be on tonight. Is this a repeat or is he just going to be part of a bit? I didn’t watch the first time so wouldn’t remember if there were any other guests.

[MaryMitch]

20 minutes ago, lurkerbee said:

I saw during last night’s show that Harry will be on tonight. Is this a repeat or is he just going to be part of a bit? I didn’t watch the first time so wouldn’t remember if there were any other guests.

I think I saw he was doing the "Colbert Questionnaire". Those are often taped ahead of time, so it's probably new footage.

[lurkerbee]

4 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

I think I saw he was doing the "Colbert Questionnaire". Those are often taped ahead of time, so it's probably new footage.

Thanks. I’d kind of assumed that was the case. Hopefully this will be the last of him on the show.

ETA: Loved the interview with Damian Lewis. When he returns to Billions, I guess I’ll have to resubscribe to Showtime for a bit.

Edited February 28, 2023 by lurkerbee

[Annber03]

Ahahahaha, oh, my god, Kal Penn's story about working in the Obama administration and learning about the "MILF" organization. That's amazing XD. 

Loved Stephen's running thing of changing the title of DeSantis' book in the monologue, too :p. 

(But man, he was not kidding about the monologue being "all about assholes" night, was he? Hoo, boy.)

[DXD526]

A highly enjoyable Questionnaire with Harry! 

When Harry reacted to something by saying Stephen needs more love in his life, and Stephen answered, "I couldn't possibly have more love in my life." Awwwww...

How great was it that Harry called out that stupid 'what number am I thinking of' question? It's such an unfunny time-waster, but nobody has ever given Stephen grief over it, until now. 

And Harry put a twist on the 'sum up the rest of your life in five words' question, by giving just five standalone words, instead of a sentence: Freedom, Happiness, Clarity, Space, Love. 

Very enjoyable!

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, DXD526 said:

How great was it that Harry called out that stupid 'what number am I thinking of' question? It's such an unfunny time-waster, but nobody has ever given Stephen grief over it, until now. 

There was someone who guessed a number to which Stephen did not respond with “That is not it,” but, dammit, I did not note who it was, or even the number.
I wonder if Harry either noticed this himself in preparing for the interview by watching old Now You Are Known interviews, or if (more likely?) Harry had someone to watch them for him (but that person would have to be sharp enough and care enough to notice).

[Breedom]

First, I'd like to clarify that my feelings towards Stephen Colbert were neutral, never seeing his show except for a few minutes here and there EVER. When I saw that Prince Harry was a guest, I stayed tuned.

I saw this little segment first that was very unmemorable and just not funny. Soon after a commercial break he clumsily announced that Harry would be joining- but in an odd way. Stumbling, something like . . . oh, so is it Prince Harry of Sussex coming out, is that it?" Like he never heard of him. What stupid and disrespectful behavior. I was already cringing.

This little question and answer thing seems to be a regular thing on the show and it could be entertaining contingent on other factors. It so wasn't this time. Harry looked very uncomfortable and he was not enjoying this - Stephen, little man, read the room. Your guest is not having fun.

But he went on and on, oblivious to anything else but his silly questions. So rude. Why did Harry agree to give his time to this little wannabe?

He was also rude talking about Harry's book - "all 400 pages of it."

I will never tune into this little man's show again, no matter who is on.

 

 

 

 

[JustHereForFood]

The alternative titles to the book (how did he put it? a title so generic I already forgot it?) were great 😄.

And that wedding photo looked lovely. He said it's been 30 years, so I guess they had the anniversary recently. I could only find that they were married in 1993, no details about the date.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Breedom said:

He was also rude talking about Harry's book - "all 400 pages of it."

I only caught the last half of Stephen's "Now You Are Known" questionnaire/interview with Harry, but, yeah, it did sound a bit rude by itself.
It really should have aired right after their hour-long interview back in January, when it was filmed, when we saw them building up a lot of good will that allowed for Stephen to tease Harry in the questionnaire segment. 
For instance, in order to prepare for the interview with Harry, Stephen *did* read the entire 400 pages of Spare the night before the interview in January, which was filmed the day after the book became available to Stephen.

Jan 11, 2023:

 

[Breedom]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

It really should have aired right after their hour-long interview back in January, when it was filmed, when we saw them building up a lot of good will that allowed for Stephen to tease Harry in the questionnaire segment. 

Thank you for posting this interview, Shapeshifter. What a difference. To be fair, I thought this one was very respectful to Prince Harry, as well as informative. I'll also call out that I really liked that Stephen wasn't interrupting constantly, breaking up the guest's (in this case, Harry) thoughts. So many show hosts do and it just isn't necessary to keep interjecting their own thoughts - which breaks up the whole conversation.

Last night's segment was still so odd and I agree 100% if this was filed right after the previous interview it sure would have made better sense, at least for me.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, Breedom said:

Last night's segment was still so odd and I agree 100% if this was filed right after the previous interview it sure would have made better sense, at least for me.

The “Questionnaire” thing is definitely a  “bit” that can be amusing if you watch regularly. If for some reason that’s the first thing related to the show that you see, I can see how it would leave one with a lot of questions. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by SoMuchTV
Fixing typo

[possibilities]

I usually hate the questionnaire. But I liked Harry's and there was one other I thought was also good. But mostly I think it's a waste of time and I wish they'd retire it and come up with some other recurring bit. 

[partofme]

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

There was someone who guessed a number to which Stephen did not respond with “That is not it,” but, dammit, I did not note who it was, or even the number.

I don’t remember who the person was, but the number was 3. 
 

The thing that annoys me about the questionnaire is the guests always choose dog when the correct answer is cat.  

[JustHereForFood]

I am disappointed than noone guessed 42 as the number yet (or at least I haven't seen it, I've probably skipped someone I don't care about).

[shapeshifter]

23 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

I am disappointed than noone guessed 42 as the number yet (or at least I haven't seen it, I've probably skipped someone I don't care about).

I thought maybe someone did guess 42?  
But maybe not.
I googled 

• The Colbert Questionert answers list favorite number

but didn't see anything definitively comprehensive, and didn't look at each one.

[shapeshifter]

Just watched Stephen's delightful interview with Steven Spielberg in Spielberg's home, including a segment in which John Williams joins them. 
Teared up once. Laughed a lot.

[ShadowKnight2]

So...what exactly was that cold open about?

[theredhead77]

Hated last night's opening. I hate whispering and super low voices. If that is a big part of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once I'll never watch it.

[ahisma]

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

I hate whispering and super low voices. If that is a big part of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once I'll never watch it.

EEAAO has a lot of weird, surreal scenes, but that whispering, low voices, meditative aesthetic? No.

[shapeshifter]

So last night on TLS they used ChatGPT tech to give a voice to texts revealed in the news:
https://youtu.be/_84Ov2NzTQ8?t=263

Wow.
The future is here, and now I know why nobody wants to live forever. 

Still.
They did an excellent job of it, both technically, and narratively. 

[Calvada]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:37 PM, shapeshifter said:

Just watched Stephen's delightful interview with Steven Spielberg in Spielberg's home, including a segment in which John Williams joins them. 
Teared up once. Laughed a lot.

This was great.  I especially the second part. Steven Spielberg and John Williams could talk about their work together for hours and hours and I would be there for every minute of it. 

Stephen mentioned that Spielberg doesn't go on talk shows and I tried to think if there were any other big names in Hollywood or performers who don't do talk shows.  I remember it was a big deal when Elizabeth Taylor went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for the first and only time a few months before he retired.  All I could come up with is Beyonce.  I don't think she does talk shows, does she?  I'm sure there's some big name I'm forgetting.  It's probably more often singers who don't appear (does Taylor Swift do talk shows?) since I think actors usually have some contractual obligation to promote the work.  

[Medicine Crow]

I saw Taylor on (I think) Fallon, & she named every breed of cat known to man ... LOL.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Medicine Crow
Oops, named, not names.

[Ailianna]

Taylor Swift has been on The Graham Norton Show multiple times.

[JustHereForFood]

I am not sure why, but I found the interview with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin disappointing. They wasted too much time talking about drugs and not enough to describe the movie they were promoting. Plus, I got the feeling that Jane didn't want to be there for some reason.

[possibilities]

It's funny because I saw Jane and Lily being interviewed on The View (I only watched it for Jane and Lily) and it was the opposite in that context-- Jane was very engaged but Lily barely got a word in and it seemed like she didn't want to be there.

Maybe they take turns and it's their shtick.

They talked even less about the movie on The View. In that interview, they talked about Jane's health and Jane's activism, mostly.

[Annber03]

"eHomily: Find a her for your hymn." XD.

That was cute. 

[wonderwoman]

On 3/11/2023 at 10:42 AM, JustHereForFood said:

Plus, I got the feeling that Jane didn't want to be there for some reason.

maybe she didn’t. i noticed as well. but the woman is 85 and in remission after cancer treatments. maybe she just wasn’t feeling well. 

[shapeshifter]

Kamala Harris was just on. She was surprisingly positive and comforting.

Carrie Coon was on, who I really liked in The Leftovers. She was interesting and looked good, but did not quite look like herself?

[wonderwoman]

looks like the band got sparkly new outfits for the opening. 

[JustHereForFood]

I don't remember those chapters well (it's been almost 20 years since I've read LOTR), but Stephen's description is very touching. It's always a pleasure to hear him talk about Tolkien.

 

I also liked the interview with Sean Hayes. "It comes out May 30th wherever books aren't banned." Ouch.

[ShadowKnight2]

20 hours ago, wonderwoman said:

looks like the band got sparkly new outfits for the opening. 

I think the new opening for the band was to include the keyboard player, who joined after Louis Cato officially became the LS band leader.

[SG429]

I'm hoping The News made it into tonight's taping. It should be festive!

[BookThief]

45 minutes ago, SG429 said:

I'm hoping The News made it into tonight's taping. It should be festive!

I'm guessing they had to scrap their original show and come up with a new one ASAP. I don't think they'd let this wait a day! 

[wonderwoman]

44 minutes ago, BookThief said:

1 hour ago, SG429 said:

I'm hoping The News made it into tonight's taping. It should be festive!

I'm guessing they had to scrap their original show and come up with a new one ASAP. I don't think they'd let this wait a day! 

looks like the news broke @ 5:30. pretty sure they begin taping @ 5. hoping they had a heads up that it was coming down and held the audience while they rewrote the monologue. 

much as i love john oliver and last week tonight, they do one topic a week and, what, 30 shows a year. i don’t begrudge lwt its emmys, but they’ve never delayed a taping while they rewrote the monologue. totally different animal from late night with sc. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by wonderwoman

[opus]

1 hour ago, BookThief said:

I'm guessing they had to scrap their original show and come up with a new one ASAP. I don't think they'd let this wait a day! 

Plus tomorrow’s a repeat.

[shapeshifter]

9 minutes ago, opus said:

Plus tomorrow’s a repeat.

As scheduled. Yes. But...? 

[formerlyfreedom]

Hey folks - discussion should be about what actually makes it to air. So please wait to see what happens on tonight’s episode before discussing today’s news. Thank you.

[DXD526]

Stephen was downright giddy last night! He is a performer, and sometimes acts excited over things he doesn't really care about. But it's obvious when he's busting his buttons with happiness, and last night, the buttons were flying! He was barely able to control his glee during the monologue!

It was nice to see, after so many years of frustration. 

[Bethany]

I loved the reaction from the audience!  It was obvious that most of them had no idea that the grand jury had reached a decision.  I kinda wish I'd stopped watching after this though as seeing LaurenB on my screen so late at night is usually guaranteed to give me nightmares.

[Medicine Crow]

4 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I loved the reaction from the audience!  It was obvious that most of them had no idea that the grand jury had reached a decision.  I kinda wish I'd stopped watching after this though as seeing LaurenB on my screen so late at night is usually guaranteed to give me nightmares.

LaurenB ... ??