Late Night Last Week: Taylor Tomlinson Takes on Tradwives and More

Late Night Last Week is a column highlighting some of the more notable segments from the previous week of late night television. Today’s installment features clips from the week of June 17-23.

Taylor Tomlinson Asks, Tradwife or 1800s Pilgrim Quote?

Haters will say this segment from After Midnight made its way into this week’s column because I happen to hail from Plymouth, Mass. And they would be right. It is also a great way to learn about the so-called “Tradwife” lifestyle. So if this is your first time learning about it, my apologies. You can never go back. 

A “tradwife” is a woman who purports to live as a “traditional wife.” The lifestyle has gone viral on social media, namely TikTok. Tradwives essentially live as if they were in 1950s America, taking on homemaking roles and championing traditional gender norms and roles. As always with folks of this ilk, their social media posts are not so much about championing their own lives, but telling others the way they live is wrong. Tradwife advice abounds. 

Taylor Tomlinson and her all star panel of guests last week—Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, and Joe Manganiello—had some fun at the expense of the tradwives. On Tuesday’s episode of After Midnight, Tomlinson gave the trio a group of quotes. Some were from tradwives, while others were from a 1800s etiquette guide. The results may surprise you.

Seth Meyers Sells His Writers’ Rejected Jokes

In last week’s column, we covered the podcasters known as Strike Force Five, the collection of late night hosts who nicely gathered to raise money for their workers during the Writers’ Strikes, but have since become a little too chummy for those of us wishing for late night combat. Yet another win for horizontal integration. 

On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host paid tribute to his writers once again, this time bringing their often unseen labor into the spotlight. Billed as a “surprise inspection,” the recurring segment features Meyers reading some of the many hundreds of jokes deemed unsuitable for air—until now. Some of the best jokes come from writer Mike Scollins, including one that elicits a “jump scare,” as Meyers calls it, from the audience.

Bill Maher Laughs Really Hard at Jiminy Glick 

At a time when fascism is ascendant throughout the United States, and indeed many countries throughout the world, bold, principled journalists are needed more than ever. So it was especially disappointing to see one of our nation’s finest entertainment journalists, the intrepid interviewer Jiminy Glick, who bears a passing resemblance to Martin Short, be trotted out for a presumably paid gig to interview the host of Real Time with Bill Maher about his new book. Really, Jiminy? Have you lost your independent spirit over the years? 

Maher spent much of the interview with Glick laughing, seemingly unable to go along with the joke and spar with that wit he’s always telling us about. This is standard fare for many of Glick’s celebrity ribbings. But Maher seemed to have an incessant need to remind the live audience that he too was in on the joke, laughing (or perhaps deflecting) as if he had not previously appeared on television with Glick before and invited him to share the stage on Friday night. “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Maher said to Glick at the end. Nobody lands the plane like him.

Michael Che Challenges Wedding Norms

Weekend Update co-host and Daily Show alum Michael Che came out with a solid set on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In fact, shots of Fallon laughing in the background made it seem as though the two were performing on Saturday Night Live. The NBC carousel goes round and round. 

Che’s set concerned some topics we might expect from the news-minded stand-up, including quips about the presidential race and religion. He closed with some thoughts on marriage and weddings, offering an entirely new way to think about how and when the ceremony takes place. The way he deconstructs the wedding and builds it back up again may forever alter the way you think about the ritual.