I've gotten out of the habit of watching late-night talk shows, but I tuned into the Tonight Show last night to see a cameo appearance of artwork by my friend Tom Tomorrow (psst! he did the cover art to the
new Pearl Jam album!).
And then I kept watching until 2am. Let me recount what I saw: Conan interviewing Will Ferrell; a performance by Pearl Jam; Jimmy Fallon's iffy monologue; banter with announcer Steve Higgins; a sketch in which Jimmy tries to entertain his humorless female assistant and then hangs in the cafeteria with members of house band The Roots; interviews with Anne Hathaway and Will Forte; then Carson Daly in the desert shooting guns with a bunch of Army guys; an ad for Hulu starring Dennis Leary and two twentysomething guys who get their brains sucked out.
I know late night comedy has always been a sausagefest, and I genuinely like Conan, Pearl Jam, and Will Forte -- but a quick tally of the three shows plus the Hulu ad, which I'm including unfairly or not, amounts to approximately 23 sausages and 2 muffs, one of which was basically silent. (Interestingly, this was the exact ratio of
male-to-female columnists at the Washington Post at one point last year.) I know I keep banging away at this, but as a media-type gal, I find this both depressing and incredibly weird in the year 2009.
posted by Jen Sorensen, 12:05 PM -
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