For all the annoying chatter along the lines of “ooh, isn’t Letterman brilliant! Why isn’t there a show like that over here, eh? My favourite bit is when he laughs at one of ‘his’ jokes that he’s just seen on a cue card for the first time, and then the band leader pretends to lead an impromptu version of a vaguely relevant musical number. Why it isn’t on a proper channel, I. Just. Don’t. Know”, we prefer Craig Ferguson. who follows Letterman with The Late Late Show in the CBS nightly schedule. Why? Because he’ll open a show like this:
Much better.
[Update] Simon, from the internet’s Sweeping The Nation writes:
“It's certainly stiff competition in the 'British TV Face From The Nineties Visually Represents TMBG' stakes to:”
Excellent stuff. Now, if we can just dig out footage of Ray Cokes doing the robot in time to ‘Rhythm Section Want Ad’ we may well have a minor internet meme on our hands.
5 .:
It's certainly stiff competition in the 'British TV Face From The Nineties Visually Represents TMBG' stakes to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhRLrtekEJA
Of course! That slice of Baker delight now added to the original post.
There's stunning footage on YouTube too of Craig Ferguson opening his show with a long eulogy for his father, who had died 48 hours earlier. Running orders and schedules etc seemed to be put on hold there and then. It gives the impression that nobody except Ferguson himself knew he was going to say anything, and it's stunning.
Craig Ferguson also came up with this astonishing twelve minute opening monologue rebuking talk show hosts for making verbal attacks on troubled celebrities. Along the way it takes in subjects such as his own alcoholism and attempted suicide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA Note how the audience laughs it up at the first mention of Britney, thinking this is all a longwinded setup, only to find out he really isn't taking it in that direction.
It's a shame his show is the only one of the "big four" (alongside Letterman, Leno and Conan) not to be given a runout over here.
This has little to do with anything but i'd just like to put on the record that I took a phone call today in work from a lady called Ana Ng. Sadly, nobody else in my office had heard of the They Might Be Giants song so were unable to understand why I found that so amusing.
Post a Comment