Late night talk shows: Every time hosts were absolute jerks to guests
Ah, late night talk shows. The perfectly manufactured press for film and TV studios to promote their new projects, with a controlled space for musicians to promote their new songs and albums. What, thought we were going to buy into the quirky interviews and not see their true purpose?
Late night talk shows, and as an extension, late night talk show hosts are just there to help make whoever their guest is more relatable and charming, just in time for whatever new project they have coming out. Just look at how Jimmy Kimmel “luckily” scores every Marvel star right before the next movie comes out when his show airs on ABC.
But not every interview goes as planned, and the late night talk show hosts end up looking like huge jerks. Sometimes, it’s even intentional and the host is just being a dick for the sake of getting views. Here’s some of the cringiest interviews of the past where the host just could not leave their poor guest alone.
Anytime Joaquin Phoenix is on Jimmy Fallon
We have several examples for you if you’d like, but we’ll just group them together because it really is a bad time is Phoenix is on Fallon’s schedule for the week. While Joaquin Phoenix definitely has an ego issue at times, Fallon continues to try and make him out to be an idiot through his stupid games he’ll play on the show.
Most recently, in promotion for Joker, Joaquin straight up called out Fallon and his silly games he’ll play, pointing out how embarrassing it can be for the guest, especially if they don’t know what’s coming. Then, swapping roles for a bit, we realized how much we actually want a late night show hosted by Joaquin Phoenix, because it’ll have good interviews.
Caitlyn Jenner calling out Jimmy Kimmel for making fun of her
Whether you like the Jenners or not, you have an obligation to respect Caitlyn and her transitioning. Unfortunately Kimmel missed that day in school, so when the news first broke about Caitlyn transitioning, he made a few poorly written jokes about it.
Naturally, the next time Jenner was on the show, she used her platform to call out Kimmel’s bigotry and make it clear that her identity is not a joke. He gave a poor apology, that Jenner probably accepted for the sake of the cameras, but it definitely proves the point that these hosts aren’t aware of who they’re hurting.
Justin Bieber being uncomfortable on David Letterman
“That’s what I do, I make people uncomfortable.” Not exactly the best thing to come out of a late night talk show host’s mouth. But it’s exactly what Letterman said when Bieber admitted he was uncomfortable during their interview. By the end of his career, Letterman made it clear he couldn’t care less about the new youth talent.
But the way he openly mocks Justin Bieber for misspeaking about the Sistine Chapel is just sad. Sure, the kid’s a bit of an idiot, but he’s still relatively new to the whole fame thing during this interview. Of course he’s not going to be perfect, but that doesn’t mean he should become your punching bag.
Aziz Anzari “adds diversity” to Steven Colbert
While Anzari is definitely not a perfect man, he was fighting the good fight to get more diversity on TV. Who can forget him giving up his speech to give the spotlight to Lena Waithe when they both won an Emmy for writing on Master of None? So this interview with Colbert where Colbert jokes that having Anzari makes his show more diverse is a low blow.
Somehow, it manages to get worse later on, as Colbert incorrectly says the name of Anzari’s new book. Making a comment that someone’s gonna get fired for that, Colbert says “well I hope it’s a white guy then.” Not the best look from a straight white male. Considering the clip on YouTube is still named “Aziz Anzari diversifies The Late Show”, it’s clear they didn’t learn.
