OPINION: Late night tonight

As a teenager, my idols were not very remarkable. I valued those close to me, my teachers and my parents, but when it came to celebrities I never had a “hero.”

It might be different for my zoomer generation, which has grown up in an internet age where we could cheekily communicate and troll celebrities by directly commenting on posts in the most inappropriate way possible. But that golden age has mostly sailed as celebrities turn over their social accounts to personal managers. I think most of us are more aware of how we interact with that part of culture because we’re the generation which grew up with the internet.

It occurred to me recently how much of celebrity culture I did end up absorbing came from parental osmosis and my dad. He’s not the type of tabloid-consuming superfan, but he loved his favorite comedians. I will never be able to disconnect him and Robin Williams from my head. I remember Williams’s passing being the first time I noticed how important these people, these gods of the funnies, could have such lasting effects.

I started becoming more aware of the world as I sat down with him to watch late-night talk shows. Perhaps if I was slightly older, I would have caught more of the tail-end of David Letterman and Jay Leno’s runs, but I remember two men distinctly. Stephen Colbert in “The Colbert Report” and Jon Stewart in “The Daily Show.”

To my dad, and eventually to me, these were the funnymen. The satirists who explained politics in the most consumable way; they made politics worth following, even when it sucked. Nothing bores people more than exploring the facts of campaign trails and political promises; why not present it with goofs, unreasonable amounts of confetti and have Stewart dance in front of a soul choir.

Consuming news this way is not great for news literacy, but it does form a level of acknowledgement which can’t come from just absorbing information. Hearing a crowd rightfully cheer and boo is uplifting - it’s the new church. It’s what created these men (a separate issue lies with the inability for networks to accept women being funny) into leaders, people to watch when the world is dreary. For many people and for many years, their monologues were the last thing they watched before they went to sleep.

I still love late night to this day. Even though the scene and legacy is smaller, and will most likely die in a few years from the TV industry’s adaption to streaming services, this industry still holds comfort.

Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” is still trucking along, even after the satire angle was mostly cut in the transition. Jimmy Kimmel on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” provides a blunter perspective which is nice to hear at times. Seth Meyers on “Late Night” is the hidden gem, probably the most consistently humorous of the daily hosts owing to a more laid-back style.

I’m impartial to Jimmy Fallon and the “Tonight Show,” mostly because I don’t think he’s all that funny, and his nervous energy is hard to watch when it’s clashing with an abundance of production value. It’s just surprising to see Fallon, who has been at it for 16 years, still feel this uncoordinated.

At the tippy top, John Oliver with “Last Week Tonight” and Stewart’s Monday appearances on “The Daily Show” are utterly exceptional. Oliver’s been nice to see with a more focused attention toward certain issues and as someone who seems to genuinely have a pulse on the younger generation, a.k.a. me.

During one week in February this year, Stewart had a segment expressing frustration with Elon Musk and DOGE. As his speech crescendoed, he slammed a mug against his desk, exploding the porcelain into hundreds of pieces and cutting a noticeable gash in his hand. He would sheepishly show the audience who gasped at blood running down his hand. The sequence is utterly cathartic in a way only Stewart and years of experience can do, even at the age of 62.

The whole culture of late night is exactly my jam. But, it’s a jam which is starting to spoil. I may not be psychic, but I see the writing on the wall. This era of television doesn’t appeal to my generation, and it probably never will. Not when short-form videos are starting to take over.

This isn’t a call to go watch these institutions of television, they don’t hit all the time. But, as a young person who has watched these hosts who have all been in place since before Donald Trump was elected the first time, it’s hard not to view these shows as somewhat stagnant, especially in their attempts to appeal to my generation. I cringe when Colbert says “skibidi” or when Fallon tries to ghostwrite tweets.

In all, I think the scene could benefit from a younger host. “The Daily Show” offers a few options with their weekly host-rotation. I think Jordan Klepper, who is kind of a mini Stewart who has the perfect guts for good satirical humor, would be perfect. But, it comes with the acknowledgement that late night is exceptionally white, male and all-too-similar to each other.

There is no solution I could do; I’m not an executive and I’m perhaps the farthest possible distance from both New York and Los Angeles. But, as someone who adores this industry, I just don’t want it to go away. America is a consistently funny country built on the freedom to be funny if you wanted to. It’s a comfort which might be needed now more than ever.