Real comedy still happens on late night, we can prove it. If you like Conan comedy gold, Fallon friendliness, cutesy Corden, list-making Letterman, kneedy Kimmel, and all the rest, I hope you’ll enjoy this column too.
Last night on late night, John Oliver took America to task for being the only other country, auspiciously paired with Papua New Guinea, to not have any federal mandated paid family leave for the birth of a child. May 10 was Mother’s Day in the US this year, and Last Week Tonight made the astute move of exposing a pretty horrible injustice.
Also, since very few late night shows broadcast on Fridays, and fewer still upload their clips on time for Saturday, today we see Ray Romano cry on Late Show, U2 “busk” with Jimmy Fallon, and Lance Bass and James Corden do Boy Band-Oke with Grace Helbig on The Grace Helbig Show.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The main topic of last night’s episode of Last Week Tonight was the lack of any legally required paid leave for mothers or fathers of newborns in the US. In the US, mothers are permitted to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave under federal law. However, as Oliver shows, in practice this doesn’t work. Most mothers cannot afford to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave and be fine financially. The system is one in which mothers take off as much time as they can afford to miss, and for some mothers, that’s dramatically little time. A woman interviewed in the piece recounts giving birth on the weekend and going back to work that same week. Obviously, this is traumatic for the weary mothers, and potentially very harmful to infants.
Last Week Tonight makes note of not calling time off for newborns “maternity leave”, but family leave. As Oliver says, fathers should be allowed to take some paid days off when they have newborn children as well. Oliver encourages society to change and not shame men for taking time off when they have children.
Late Show with David Letterman
(Friday 5/8/15 recap)
- Ray Romano talks about what going on Dave’s show did for his career.
- At least one human and a couple of dogs owe their lives to Dave Letterman.
- For Mother’s Day, Late Show compiled the best clips with Dave’s Mom Dorothy. Classic stuff.
- Breakfast at Denny’s.
- Brian Regan did stand up one more time for Dave, it was pretty solid.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
(Friday 5/8/15 recap)
- U2 is on the show, Bono had a really bad bicycle accident.
- Bono is rocking the undercut, because he is cool and hip and totally cool.
- U2 and Jimmy “busk” in the subway.
- It doesn’t really look like anyone buys those disguises for a minute.
The Grace Helbig Show
- Grace Helbig is the hilarious and talented creator of awesome YouTube content, theatre/live shows, and has her own show on E!
- This week she called her mother and played games with Lance Bass and James Corden!
- I cannot handle the talent. Corden and Bass are both awesome here.
- Grace calls her Mom and plays Two Truths and a Lie, with a twist!
- There’s Grace in all of us.