Chicks Aren't Funny: and they aren't on late night TV, either
Posted at 4:00 PM Mar 02, 2009
By Andrea Grimes |
There's discussion of a Joan Rivers flop and cable shows, but fundamentally the NYT argument is that white dudes blend in, and blending in is safe, and it means Joaquin Phoenix can go be a nutjob and still make Letterman look like the guy next door. (Oh, would that Letterman lived next door to me.)The talk-show host's goal isn't to stand out and be different; it's to blend in. And there is a perfectly good reason. In a universe where a viewer can watch anything at any time -- SportsCenter, Comedy Central, nature films, Warner Brothers cartoons or Thai pornography -- hosts like Leno, Letterman, O'Brien, Fallon, Kimmel and Ferguson offer a united front of safe boundaries at bedtime.
I wish the article had gone farther: what would a minority-hosted or female-hosted late night show look like? We've got the Arsenio Hall example if we want to dip into mainstream blackness, and sadly, the consistently awful Chelsea Handler show if we want to peek into the feminine example. But both these shows fundamentally rely on the White Guy model of late night television: jokes, guests, canned banter.
I think there are some wonderful female comedians out there who are mainstream enough to appeal to a wide audience and gutsy enough to bring something new to the table. You'll have to forgive me if Ellen comes to mind--I know the daytime show is a disaster--but given an hour and a half in late night, I can kind of see how a witty lesbian could kind of rock the boat... and my face. (See Maddow, Rachel.)
Who would you guys like to see hosting a late night chick-talk show?
Comments
I vote for Aisha Tyler. She was super funny on The Soup so I would love to see her come back and mock things.
Posted 03/02/2009 at 07:25:49 PM