The Late Live Show's sixth and final season kicks off at midnight tomorrow (Saturday, March 23rd) at iO. I've been a fan of the show for as long as I've been going to comedy shows in Chicago and am sad to see them go (this is no mercy killing, by the way, the show's wrapping up because , Late Live's host and co-creator is moving to Los Angeles this summer). I hope to catch as many of the eight shows they've got lined up between tomorrow and May 11th, and you should plan to do the same.
Joe's here now to take us behind the scenes to the Late Live Show's writers room, with a look at the cultural detritus that often sidetracks their writing processes. You can pick up tickets for any/all Late Live Shows here.
This is probably obvious, but I love the writers for The Late Live Show. They make me appear funnier than I actually am, and their collective brainpower and shared sensibility is the very foundation upon which our show is built. However, you might doubt this alleged "competence" if you saw how fixated we get on the dumbest corners of pop culture. In honor of our final season premiere this Saturday, here is a list of The Late Live Show writers' room's top five most common references that threaten to derail our productivity on a weekly basis.
LOUIE ANDERSON
The morbidly obese stand-up comedian and Family Feud host is the room's current obsession. Nearly every idea that anyone brings up is then repeated as "SHOW ME _____" in Louie's gravelly nasal Feud voice. Also, the comedian was portrayed as an ugly, annoying child in the 1990s cartoon Life with Louie, which had commercials (we think?) featuring him proclaimling "All riiiight!" - another thing that we'll say without much prompting. It's like a dream come true now that he's a participant on a reality show where he competitively jumps into water.
THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOY
This is a popular viral video, but it's not the intense and sexual dancing at a child's birthday party that piqued our interest. While that is funny, it's the very last thing they say that we're stuck on: "Can y'all do the stanky leg for the happy birthday boy?" Not birthday boy. Happy birthday boy. I wish I could explain why the syntax of that makes us laugh so much.
THE TALKING DINOSAUR FROM JURASSIC PARK 3
If an eccentric billionaire named Alan contacted us because he wanted to fund our show, we'd probably forget to follow-up, as this video would sidetrack us.
GOLDMEMBER
Goldmember might just be the worst character of all time. That in itself is great, but what makes him even more fascinating is the context in which he was introduced to the world. Before the third Austin Powers movie, he was being hyped like he was going to change comedy. And then when we finally got to see him, his defining characteristic was that he orgasms for an element on the periodic table. "I love _____" in a Goldmember voice is a common utterance in the room.
BONUS: is another oft-referenced trainwreck that was hyped non-stop by a ubiquitous comedian, arguably even more shamelessly.
DON PARDO
OK, take every item I've listed and say it in SNL announcer Don Pardo's voice. Now say every word ever in his voice. What you've just done is the most accurate representation of our room without actually being there. So do we just say the names of arbitrary people, and it's funny because they would never be on SNL? Maybe that's how it started initially, but it's gotten to the point where now it's typically objects, scenarios, or ideas. "Featuring... a man's loose fingernails! With musical guest... trying to open a Capri Sun! And your host... the concept of loneliness!"
Honorable mentions: Soy Bomb, Powder, Christof, Honkin' on Bobo, and Yoda backpacks.
Spuds MacKenzie was left off this list, as our affection for him is .
-Joe Kwaczala