Ten years ago, Sarah Silverman changed late night.
Silverman won an Emmy for the song, and then she went back to work.
Kimmel turned Damon and Ben Affleck into recurringJimmy Kimmel Livecharacters.
Credit: Robyn Von Swank/Hulu
One year post-Fing Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon came to late night and made celebrity-guest virality a cultural obsession.
Then James Corden realized he could drive while celebrities sang.
That era could be fading.
A familiar structure, but the title is a mission statement.
She asked a passerby, How can I be a good ally?
(The passerby happened to be Retta.)
The tone of the song suggested swagger-y country, but the constant break-offs into dialogue suggested jangled-nerve confusion.
Then she cut to some naked people in the audience, because shes on Hulu and why not?
This is the right instinct.
She cheerfully gave a kid a fart machine, and she asked about their family history.
She talked about Trump, and they made their case.
They voted for change.
They felt like Obama encouraged freeloaders.
She was happy to find out that almost everyone was in favor of gay marriage.
This could be my own thing, but bits like this never quite feel all-the-way convincing.
Theres the Heisenberg elephant in the room: Would the conversation be like this without cameras?
And what was lost in the edit?
Better: Silvermans interview.
The conversation went to unexpected places.
A convert from Westboros doctrine, Phelps-Roper said that extremists generally are not psychopaths.
Theyre psychologically normal people whove been persuaded by bad ideas.
So this show wants to be a generalist plea for uniting, not dividing.
Its hard to make that exciting, but its not like exciting got us anywhere this year.
Im glad Silverman has a venue for this because we should have a venue for this.
The other political late night hosts can feel like theyre preaching.
(Im the choir, but thats part of the problem.)
Its a good instinct, to lower the temperature, and lighten the mood.
Theres even something old school in Silvermans approach.
The shows not even technically late night (Hulu will release new episodes on Thursday nights).
Zickel promised that next weeks guests would be Tom Berenger, Morgan Fairchild, with music by The Judds.
