Late Night Last Week: Promotion Goes Too Far With Deadpool & Wolverine

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 Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman hosting Kimmel, John Oliver on the war in Gaza, Taylor Tomlinson on Gen Z intern edits, and Erica Rhodes’ stand-up TV debut. 

So there I was, on the brink of sleep. I rolled over from my right side to my left, picking up my phone for one final scroll. In a moment divined I can now only assume by the devil himself, I clicked on YouTube, looking, perhaps, for clips that would soon be included in this column. And then it happened. I saw it. I felt the ghost of Steve Allen rise from the ground, distraught over what he had wrought. When I woke up the next morning, I wondered whether it was all just a dream. But reader, it was all too real. 

On Wednesday, July 24, 2024, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman hosted ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, or, as the show’s YouTube page billed them, Deadpool and Wolverine. For those keeping score at home, Disney owns both Marvel and ABC, so this is a form of that Rockefellian principle known as vertical integration. Ya know, where the company owns both the product and the means to promote that product, and, in this case, that product also serves as content for the other product. Reynolds made a joke about the situation, noting that Disney now also owned the world’s entire supply of insulin. How funny it would be if it weren’t so believable. 

Long gone are the days where hosts did the whole, “So I hear you have a new movie” thing when talking with movie stars. Now, the stars just get an hour to themselves. At least when Frank Sinatra hosted The Tonight Show he had to sing, interview guests, and endure the wrath of Don Rickles. Instead, the bulk of the show featured a joint monologue, then Jackman interviewing Reynolds, followed by Jackman interviewing Reynolds. The show ended with some obligatory clips from the film, and an interview with their co-star, Emma Corrin. 

If I was the kind of person capable of just enjoying nice things, I would point out that both hosts were very charming in the role. Both Reynolds and Jackman had some jokes that briefly put me under a spell and brought a smile to my face, resulting in a bit of chuckle. But, luckily, I am not. So let me just end by saying the obvious: the below clip is the moment when promotion on late night television went too far. 

John Oliver on the Genocide in Gaza

The host of Last Week Tonight may be one of the only comedians in the world who could get away with a Shrek masturbation joke in the middle of a monologue about the West Bank. And that is, of course, his genius. 

On Sunday, John Oliver continued his ongoing coverage of the war in Gaza with an honesty that many pundits should aspire to. “A phrase that gets brought up a lot with regard to Israel is ‘Never Again,’ an anti-genocide slogan often evoked in memory of the Holocaust,” Oliver said, adding that that it has always been open to two interpretations: that it should never again happen to the Jewish people, and that it should never again happen to any people. “And in the West Bank, as in Gaza right now, it’s pretty clear which one the Israeli government has favored.” 

Not all comedy need be “useful”—sometimes we just want Norm McDonald telling Bob Saget he looks like a cauliflower. But in this case, where so much news coverage is couched in innuendo and sometimes just plain lies, Oliver’s monologue is not merely a necessary and powerful intervention, but a useful one for anyone out there looking to educate oneself or others. And it’s also a call to action. As Oliver says of the United States, “I just want my government to have the moral backbone that has been shown by Ben and fucking Jerry’s.” 

Like most of his monologues, Oliver’s take will most likely be uploaded to YouTube later in the week. In the meantime, catch it on Max, or, maybe, just maybe, if you search it on YouTube now another account may have uploaded it. Maybe. 

Taylor Tomlinson Showcases Gen Z Intern Edits

More than 100 years ago, the great Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein began to put forward his theories on film montage. It is through the collision of shots, Eisenstein posited, that one can derive new, powerful cinematic meaning. Today, Eisenstein’s theory of montage takes on a new form: the Gen Z Intern edit on TikTok, as rightly celebrated by Taylor Tomlinson last week on After Midnight. 

Tomlinson has the exact right response to such edits: initial trepidation, followed by the realization that if the youths made it, it’s funny. For the uninitiated, the edits mostly feature a montage of mistakes made by the subject of the video in question. Tomlinson, for example, shows a video of a delightful librarian in Milwaukee showing off cool maps from the library’s archives. The edits highlight imperfections, thus making it all the more perfect and authentic. 

Erica Rhodes Makes Stand-up TV Debut on Colbert

Despite specials, albums, and appearances on shows like New Girl and Modern Family, Erica Rhodes has never before performed stand-up on television. That changed last week, with the comic making a hilarious debut appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Following her 2023 album Ladybug, Rhodes is now on her “Get Out of Bed” stand-up tour. 

Rhodes begins her first shot on late night talking about confidence, poking fun at Gen Z as a generation of life coaches. The set then takes a turn towards her father, featuring a classic set-up for a dad joke with a stellar punchline. Rhodes recently told the Wall Street Journal that she’s ready to tape her next special: “It would be great if it was on Netflix or HBO.” Let’s make it happen. 

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic and researcher, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.