A Juvenile Story From the Creator of Adolescence Won Late Night This Week

Before we get into the best late-night moments of the week, we need to address the worst late-night moments of the week — which was any time an audience reaction really oversold a joke. When Stephen Colbert recapped the Trump-Elon drama? Exhausting. When the After Midnight audience reacted to Etsy Witches? Sounded like the paid audience on The Nanny. The one time an overly enthusiastic audience made the show better this week was the audible gasp during Dakota Johnson’s interview on The Tonight Show. But Johnson is always going to lean into the weirdness; it’s kind of her thing.

Clapter has been an ongoing issue in comedy (especially political comedy, which late night often is), but it’s been particularly bad this year. Or not even clapter — that comes at the end of a joke. What is happening often now is loud booing of public figures in the set-up of a joke, before the punchline can even pander to anyone. I’m not sure if it’s audiences needing an outlet for a lot of pent-up rage or something people are doing in post to make videos do better on social, but it needs to end. We need to get rid of the “APPLAUSE” sign in theaters and replace it with one that says “BE NORMAL,” and it’s on all the time. Anyway, here’s what got the most deserved laughter this week in late night.

Owen Wilson Performs a Trick!

Owen Wilson did the “kangaroo eating an orange in Denmark” trick on Kimmel Monday night. Jimmy Kimmel was a great sport about it, I think? Forgive me if I’m wrong, but this telepathic magic trick was huge on the playground in elementary school. Was Kimmel pretending he hadn’t pulled this exact shenanigan when he was 8, or was he genuinely surprised when Wilson seemingly read his mind? Either way, it was very nostalgic seeing it on network television, like it must have been for Gen-Xers when Bart Simpson sang the naughty version of “Jingle Bells” in the very first Simpsons episode.

A Well-Constructed Joke From Jon Stewart

On Elon Musk leaving the White House, Jon Stewart said that Musk wanted to “make more family with his time.” That’s just some good old-fashioned wordplay right there. The rest of Stewart’s headlines segment lost a little bit of the beginning’s focus, but a wordplay freak such as I will always salute a cliché when it’s flipped pithily. Also a pretty big fan of the graphic of Trump pissing his pants at the end. A nice bookend for the seg.

The Best Plug in After Midnight History

The writers of After Midnight were the guests on Wednesday’s episode. It had the “sneak a hit off your vape when the teacher’s not looking” energy of the lockdown episodes of After Midnight’s predecessor, The Late Late Show With James Corden. A big “Whaddaya gonna do, cancel us?” vibe. This was best exemplified when, during the plugs section of the show, writer Dave Thomason just asked people to Venmo him for his recent pet surgery. It’s not just a funny underselling of one’s place in the Hollywood system, it’s relatable as fuck.

Exactly the Kind of Story You Want to Hear About Christine Baranski

Read the following as if Christine Baranski is giving this advice to you, Annie Murphy: When shooting a picture, there’s always the question of what to do with one’s downtime. Famously, Joan Crawford knit. She was very nervous, and it kept her hands steady. But you can only gift so many sweaters. Kegels, that’s where the money is. If you’re waiting for a best boy to get the key light placed just so, it’s time for 45 seconds of pelvic-floor exercises! You’ll be able to open pickle jars with your bits by the time we wrap, darling.

Pissing Blood on Late Night With Seth Meyers

It was a real week for oversharing on late night: Kegels on The Tonight Show, Hoda Kotb admitting Gayle King’s space flight was cheugy on WWHL, and Stephen Graham talking about his mid-flight dick surgery on Late Night. This clip won the week on audacity and level of detail shared. Adolescence creator Stephen Graham told a story about peeing blood on a transatlantic flight, getting re-catheterized in the business-class lounge, and the relief one feels when one can — as the AMA defines it — go piss girl. And there was a photo to illustrate the anecdote, too! A tasteful one, but still. We’ve come a long way in talking about/around the penis since Johnny Carson’s famous ax-throwing ad lib.