April 27, 2016 - Susan Sarandon, David Tennant, Catfish and The Bottlemen

Posted on by

Episode GuideEPISODE NUMBER: Season 1, Episode 130 (Wednesday, April 27, 2016)
GUESTS: Susan Sarandon | David Tennant | Catfish and The Bottlemen
STAFF CAMEO(s): Liz Levin
SEGMENTS: Liz Gets A Meeting, Sort Of | Monologue - Siri Is Taking Apple’s Earnings Report Seriously | Side Effects of Being Presidential Include Drowsiness, Sexism | Stephen Gives Ted Cruz An Inspirational Coach Speech | Susan Sarandon | David Tennant | Late Show Lesser Sponsor Roundup | Catfish and The Battlement - “Soundcheck”
SUIT REPORT: Blue Suit | White Shirt | Grey/White Striped Tie

“Donald Trump picked up so many delegates (last night) that it’s looking more than ever that this fall the choice will be between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the match up America did *something* to deserve. I don’t know what. (Looks heavenward) I’m so sorry!!”

Liz Levin almost gets a meeting, once again, in this episode’s cold open.

  • And Donald can say all this because he is playing something called the “Man Card.” All of the guys get one of these, ok? They’re great. It gets you paid more, allows you to explain things about women to women, and as a white man, mine’s also a “Get Out of Jail Free” card!

  • On the other hand, yesterday was tough for Ted Cruz. The only state he won was denial.

Coach Steve uses Sportball analogies to rally Ted Cruz’s flagging chances at the nomination.

Stephen and Susan talk about her lengthy career and politics, and there’s a lot of hand clutching, too.

  • sharilyn_j

    Haven’t watched the interviews yet, just the bits, but sure seemed like Stephen was in the zone. Great energy.

    Did anyone else feel like the cold open didn’t quite hit the mark? Curious to hear if everyone’s interpretation of the premise is the same as mine. I don’t think it was clear.

    Also, how much of a tease were those glasses? He has to try wearing them on the actual show. Just once. Classy AF.

    • Gina

      I liked the open because I like Liz. Give it a couple more tries, they’ll nail it. They will do anything to avoid opening the show conventionally, methinks, ’cause Stephen.

      He needs to wear his daytime specs all the time! It looks so distinguished! We are so over the rimless thing. Letterman used to switch his eyewear too, so he has historic, CBS-blessed precedent.

      • sharilyn_j

        I like your glasses argument! We need to have an intervention. 😉

        I love Liz and I like that they’re doing cold opens. One of the first things on my LS wishlist was more of a sketch element, and it delivers that. I just think that the actual joke of this particular one was lost… assuming that my interpretation of the premise is correct. The context of Stephen always weaselling his way out of meetings with Liz wasn’t explicitly stated. But hey, random duck is funny too.

    • tamara

      i love his hipster glasses, but the frames would cast a large shadow on his face with all the lights - though i’m sure CBS could fix that. lesser sponsors, get on it! 🙂

    • Comedy Writer Nerd

      So yeah…the cold opens…
      this particular one, I felt, didn’t land. Maybe I’m missing something, that the whole “goose/no, it’s a duck”-thing is a reference to something. If so, then I’m an idiot. If not, then I thought it was just a blackout that was quirky for the sake of being quirky.
      That being said, I’m not a fan of these blackout cold opens. I get they’re trying to play around with the format of the show, and that’s a good thing, but one thing I learned in improv/sketch class was that a blackout needs to have a strong premise. And it helps if they’re funny. And other than the Hillary Clinton and Lincoln/Lee-making-out cold opens from last week, I don’t think these sketches are starting the show off on good notes. I think if they’re going to do a sketch pre-opening credits, it needs to set the tone and convince casual viewers to keep watching through the opening credits and at least through the first act.
      This is going to sound super strange, but you know what this reminds me of? Magic Johnson’s syndicated late night talk show from 1998. Now hear me out! As a bored teenager who didn’t care about Leno or Letterman, I watched Magic’s talk show in the hopes of watching a different, more hip type of talk show (and it didn’t hurt that Sheila E. was his bandleader!) But every episode, at least in the early weeks before the show got a “retooling”, opened with a little sketch before the opening credits. And every one of those sketches were laaaaaaaaaaaame. One that stands out is Schwarzenegger (spelling?) giving a pep talk to Magic’s dressing room door and not getting a response. He keeps insisting for Magic to answer him because he’s worried him. When no answer comes, Arnold, of course, rips the door off its hinges. From the other end of the hallway comes Magic. He asks, “Arnold, haven’t you ever heard of knocking?!” Cut to opening credits. (Holy shit, do I have a memory!)
      But the reason I bring up this very specific and obscure reference, is because watching these new cold opens on Colbert is making me flash right back to that admittedly terrible talk show from twenty years ago. And that makes me sad.
      Sometimes I feel way too nit-picky about the things I find problematic about The Late Show because I’m comparing it to what Stephen did on the old show, but I don’t know…

      • sharilyn_j

        I’m 99% certain there was no big goose/duck cultural reference that we missed.

        Since I have a fellow writer nerd to bounce this off of (and be nitpicky with), here’s what I THINK they were trying to do…

        -Running gag: Liz can never ever get Stephen’s attention long enough to meet with him
        -He finally agrees to talk to her in the hallway
        -Halfway through her sentence, he gets distracted and claims he saw something absurd: a goose in the bathroom.
        -Liz doesn’t believe his reason for walking away, because it’s just SO absurd. He must be lying because he’ll do anything to avoid meetings, right? He’s taken it too far this time.
        -Stephen admits he didn’t see the absurd thing. Of course he didn’t, he was just trying to avoid the meeting! For shame, Stephen.
        -But wait — what he actually saw was just as absurd. Switcheroo! Hilarious. Cue opening credits.

        If that was the general idea, it suffered from a lack of clarity in the set-up. The audience doesn’t have the context of Liz struggling to wrangle him for meetings (especially not casual viewers who wouldn’t see/remember her previous appearances).

        The scene ended up being only about what was in the bathroom. It should’ve ultimately been about the relationship between Stephen and Liz.

        Imagine this same scene up to the point where Stephen enters the men’s room. Change it so Liz scolds Stephen through the door about always avoiding meetings, she’s had enough of this, he has to stop making up stories, etc. He sticks his head out, sighs, and says “you’re right, there’s no goose in here.” Liz is satisfied that he’s finally acknowledged his behaviour. Then he says “it was a duck” and steps out with it.

        That small revision changes the entire bit. Before, the reveal was the object - the duck. This way, the reveal is that Stephen was telling the truth all along. Maybe I’ve just been doing too much longform improv recently, but that feels WAY more satisfying.

        Or maybe I don’t know wtf I’m talking about and the whole thing was a heady artistic statement on North Carolina bathroom laws. (Insert duck “bill” pun here.)

        • RA

          I thought it was some sort of reference to yesterdays monologue and him not wanting to share a bathroom with anyone.

          • Eli

            Were they the communal toilets they spoke about in the ‘Late Show Podcast’?

        • Rita

          Wow, have you guys tried to analyze Monty Python’s “Fish slapping dance” yet? I think you could write a book about it.

        • Marla Selinger Lecin

          I thought it was a reference to the North Carolina bathroom bill. (“Was that a GOOSE going into the bathroom!? Geese are not allowed in that bathroom!”)

  • Roseha

    I definitely felt Stephen was in the zone as well! It really culminated for me in the “sports” bit inspired by the Cruz basketball gaffe. That was hilarious.
    I do like those other glasses! Maybe he can vary them on the show. I did like the cold open, but then I also like the idea of the cold opens in general. The duck thing was maybe a little random, but it was funny.

  • Lou

    I don’t know if there was anything to understand about the cold open, I just loved it! I also thought the interviews were outstanding. He had a great rapport with both guests. His interview with Susan Sarandon especially actually felt like a conversation. I even forgot there was audience there! I sometimes feel like he’s too much in his own head, thinking about the next question maybe, or going too quickly for the joke… That definitely wasn’t the case on this episode!

  • The “Man Card” bit was awesome. Trump’s blatant sexism towards Clinton is ridiculous. Everything about Trump is ridiculous. I love when Stephen a shines satirical light on ridiculousness.

    I really enjoyed the David Tennant interview. He is very charming and I love his Scottish accent!

  • Vansen

    I loved the cold open. I like quirky humour, and I always enjoy seeing Liz Levin. For me, Levin chasing after Colbert while he’s holding a duck kind of sums up what I imagine it’s like for Levin to work with Colbert. That picture could be a job description 🙂

    I also thought the Road to the White House and Woman/Man Card pieces were great. One of the things I like about both John Oliver and Colbert is that they’re happy to satirise white male privilege, especially since it remains invisible to a lot of people. And I just love episodes with a good chunk of sociopolitics.

  • lockhart43

    I loved the cold open; I laughed out loud by the end of it. I love whenever he interacts with Liz Levin - I’m definitely looking forward to anything more with her in the future, because I know it will be genuine and funny. Their on-air meeting is probably one of my favorite thing (among many things) that has happened on the show thus far.

    The David Tennant interview was everything I hoped it would be!! I loved it. Tennant is normally pretty funny during interviews, and I’m glad this was no exception. I really liked the musical guest, too, actually. I might have to check them out. I’m so thrilled they are continuing to book eclectic musical guests. Really, all of their guests have been wonderfully varied, though as the shows go on I’m looking forward to quite a few more scientists and authors. But all in all, their booker is the best damn one in show business.