My brother and I got in a discussion about the late night hosts. While there is some question as to which host is the funniest, has the best music, etc., Stu and I both agree completely that Craig Ferguson is the most under-appreciated of the lot. Lots of great examples, but this one is my favorite.
Craig Ferguson
Fully agree. His monologues are actual (sometimes surreally interrelated) stories rather than a series of banal and obvious one-lliner jokes. His sidekicks, a silent, cartoony two-person-in-a-costume horse and a wisecracking gay skeleton robot are just bizarre enough to perfectly match the time slot. Besides, Ferguson’s timing when telling jokes is the best since Benny and Carson.
Stu showed me a bit where Ferguson goes into a dialogue on philosophy. Off the cuff, in response to a careless comment from an actress. Incredibly smart guy.
Have you seen his “Istanbul is not Constantinople” performance? 🙂
Craig Ferguson definitely has the best monologues of all the late night hosts.
Wow, had not seen that. Another brilliant lip-sync. Here’s the link, for others who liked Wonderful Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4phHwSSing&list=PL9F22B8DDFA6AD0E7&index=3
Ferguson is the only one I can watch repeatedly. He’s an old-style entertainer (in the best sense of the term), deliberately flying under the big-fake-Vegasy-talk-show radar. And he doesn’t pretend to be an imbecile when his guest is someone of great accomplishment, like Desmond Tutu.
I miss his music/dance numbers—almost all of which were great—but I can readily understand why he said in an interview that he’s no longer interested in the amount of planning and effort that goes into doing them.
Fallon, Kimmel, Leno, and Letterman all bore me. I’ll watch a Conan bit now and then. Ferguson is far more fun than any of them.
Dave, I disagree. You may think Fergie-Ferg is the most under-appreciated, but I think he’s the most under-heralded.
Fair enough.
No one better then Craig Ferguson!
There are other late night hosts? How do you go to work knowing you’re going to compete with Craig Ferguson? 🙂
Also, his honest and blunt take on the Conan vs. Leno situation was unending entertainment. I’d watch him every day to see what he had to say on it next.
Absolutely my favourite late night host. He just needs to move a muscle on his face to get me cracking up, brilliant.