A late-night television show on CBS, directly following David Letterman's Late Show. Previous hosts include Tom Snyder (1995-98) and Craig Kilborn (1999-2004). The current host is Craig Ferguson (2005-present), who won a 2009 Peabody Award for Excellence in Electronic Media for the episode A Night with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.Also the name of the longest-running chat show of all time, which is made and broadcast in Ireland. Originally presented by Gay Byrne (1961-99 with one season, 1968-69, taken by Frank Hall), he was succeeded by Pat Kenny (1999-2009) and Ryan Tubridy (2009-present).
Tropes associated with Tom Snyder's run:
Broadcast Live: In Eastern and Central time zones; also simulcast on CBS radio so listeners could call in.
Catch Phrase: "...so fire up the colortinis and watch the pictures as they fly through the air."
When the show was simulcast on CBS Radio, "colortinis" was replaced by "simultinis".
Guest Host: After Kilborn left, several people rotated as guest hostsnote including Jason Alexander, Jeff Altman, Tom Arnold, Tom Caltabiano, Drew Carey, Adam Carolla, Tom Dreesen, David Duchovny, Jim Gaffigan, Ana Gasteyer, Late Late Show writer Michael Gibbons, David Alan Grier, Lisa Joyner, Donal Logue, Rosie Perez, Ahmad Rashad, Jim Rome, Sara Rue, Bob Saget, and Aisha Tyler. The guests were whittled down to four finalists — D. L. Hughley, Damien Fahey, Michael Ian Black, and of course, Craig Ferguson — who hosted one week each.
Mythology Gag: Kilborn also had the segments "5 Questions" and "A Moment For Us", which he had originated on The Daily Show. He brought his "5 Questions" segment to his short-lived weeknight show.
Running Gag: Dick Vermeil's teary Super Bowl victory speech, the PG&E rapping grandmother.
The Price Is Right: Rod Roddy was a friend of Kilborn and a frequent guest during this era (primarily due to Price taping a few doors down), participating in skits and Kilborn's annual Thanksgivingroundtable. The day after Rod died, on October 28, 2003, he received this heartfelt tribute.
Rod: You know what, Kilborn? Your interviewing is piss poor. Screw you, just do the news!
Title Theme Tune: "The Late Late Show is starting. The Late Late Show is starting now...with Mr. Kilborn." Sung by Chris Isaak, no less.
The Announcer: Unlike the previous runs of the show, Ferguson has some bits announced by Shadoe Stevens.
Anything That Moves: Geoff was originally in theory supposed to be gay, but still has had a tendency to hit on female guests. Then, as of October 11, 2011, he got a girlfriend and is officially bi.
Geoff (Matthew McConaughey voice): What can I say? Sometimes my current flows the other way.
Aquaman: A recurring skit has Craig portraying the character through the use of hilariously-bad special effects, dispensing advice to viewers who write in with their personal problems.
Audience Participation: The show's cold open frequently involves selected members of the audience standing facing the camera. Craig circles them while questioning them, initially in the manner of an aggressive trial lawyer.
Author Avatar: Craig often uses the puppets as an outlet for his own thoughts and opinions. Sid The Cussing Bunny especially has become a thinly-disguised alter-ego who even has some of the same vocal and physical mannerisms. Sid had a memorable rant about the CBS censors in which he amusingly kept slipping into first-person:
Sid: And I was like "well 'ow come Geoff Peterson can do it but I can't do--I mean, Craig Ferguson can't do it?"
Bait-and-Switch Comparison: "You've got A and B. One is (list of insulting characteristics that sound like they describe A), and the other one is A." Craig is the king of this trope, able to pull it off episodely without even trying.
Subverted once, when on his wedding anniversary (and Joseph Stalin's birthday) he started comparing his wife to Stalin, and then he caught himself and stopped.
Beat: Craig enjoys ending his monologue and guest interviews with an awkward pause.
"Paid hobos" seems to be his favorite pseudo-slur for the studio audience.
Blatant Lies: Craig likes to use these in his comedy. "My next guest appears on the show Doctor Who. I've never seen it." Also, when his Doctor Who cold open was leaked to the internet: "He was horrified."
Broadcast Live: Not. But Craig often jokingly implies that it is.
Craig: And I'll be watching the American Idol final tonight...or I already did because we're live. Congratulations, (covers mouth with hand and in a slightly deeper voice) winner!
In early 2011, a change was made so that the opening segment of the show as the viewers see it is taped following the monologue. Sometimes this leads to a skip in continuity, where A) something that happens in the opening segment isn't referred to at all during the monologue but then is brought up again during the "Check the Tweets" segment or B) something the home viewers haven't seen happen yet is brought up in the opening segment.
Butt Monkeys: The professional warm-up comedian, the producer, and Aqualad.
After he crashed Craig's car the production assistant Bridger has become this.
Camera Abuse: Craig slaps the side of the camera after coming out for his monologue. Only twice (May 8, 2009 and March 7, 2011) has it backfired, with the former causing a piece of glass to fall out, shattering on the floor.
Craig: That was AWESOME!
And then Craig grabbed the broom and cleaned it up himselfwhile continuing to do his monologue.
Captain Ersatz: When Craig discovered that the French talk show Ce Soir Avec Arthur had plagiarized his intro, he ended up inviting its host Arthur to appear as a guest (and even made an appearance to deliver the monologue on "his" show, much to Craig's dismay).
The two seem to be friends now, as seen by their trip to Paris.
"It's a great day for America, everybody!" (used to start off his monologue every night; for a time, he approached the phrase in an impersonation of Walter Cronkite)
An incredulous, half-whispered "I knooow!" after sharing an unusual news item with the audience.
"You too, ladies."
"I look forward to your letters."
"Eyes up here, mister!"
"By the way, _____ was the name I used to dance under." Usually followed by "Ladies and gentlemen, _____!" and him singing "Black Velvet!"
The vacuum with "the proper amount of suction".
"CBS in no way endorses [whatever remotely objectionable thing he just said]."
"CBS Cares." "They do, just not about you..."
"REMIND you of anyone...?"
"It's kind of a papery blog." (after mentioning a newspaper, magazine, or book)
"A lot of people say to me, 'Craig, put your pants on!' And I do."
"You're welcome stoners!"
While pointing at the bird icon on a Check the Tweets printout, "[name] is actually a [bird/goose/duck/etc.]"
What do the ladies say when Craig and Geoff walk in the club?
"Here come the players!" (They're so fine...)
(bows to Secretariat) "The horse is learning Japanese, I'm being supportive."
Lately, after Craig says something sexual, "There goes my penis!"
Animated bits:
The Check the Tweets animations always include the phrase "Ass Möde".
"What did we learn on the show tonight, Craig?"
Characterization Marches On: Geoff Peterson started off with a high pitched, robotic, Cary Grant-ish voice. Later, he received an "upgrade" and became the wisecracking effeminate robot with a low voice we know today. Beginning in late May 2011, Geoff is usually voiced live by Josh Robert Thompson instead of the original canned tidbits.
When Thompson was out of the country for two weeks in November 2011, several celebrities filled in as Geoff's voice. One of them, Tom Lennon, created a whole new character for the robot - Khloe Banderas, Antonio's lesser-known sibling. Lennon/"Khloe" has filled in for Thompson a few times since then.
Crossover: The "cold open" to an episode featuring the cast of The Big Bang Theory as guests featured Craig applying to be a roommate in the show. He fails.
Cute Kitten: The closing segment of each show, "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?" ("¿Qué aprendimos en el programa, Señor Craig?" or "Qu'est-ce que nous avons apris ce soir, Craig?") is introduced by a graphic of a kitty.
Also Nadine (voiced by Lauren Graham), Wavy Rancheros' girlfriend.
A Date with Rosie Palms: During an interview, Bones star Emily Deschanel suggested that Geoff Peterson make an appearance on the show. When he responded a little over-enthusiastically ("SPROING!"), she added "Ours don't masturbate." To which Craig replied "For legal reasons, neither does he."
Depraved Bisexual: Craig loves to make jokes painting himself as this.
Digging Yourself Deeper: Poor Alex Kingston. Had she simply said "Yes, I like rabbits", no one would've been the wiser. Instead, she spends five minutes trying to change the subject while Craig's trying to figure out what "rabbit" she's talking about.
Doctor Who Fans: Craig, who keeps a TARDIS on his desk and once had a Dalek stand next to the entrance to the set for a week.
Ferguson is credited with being the first major-network talk show host to feature current cast members of Doctor Who on his show, with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Alex Kingston all having made multiple appearances.
The show has also run a segment shot at a Doctor Who convention.
Executive Meddling: A glaring example. In his Doctor Who tribute episode on November 16, 2010 (his main guest was Matt Smith), Craig planned a Cold Opening dance number where he would sing his own lyrics to the Doctor Who theme music while his back-up players and puppets dance around (one, Michael Clarke Duncan {a big African-American guy}, even sporting a Tom Baker scarf). Five minutes before airtime, CBS received word that they couldn't use the theme music because they hadn't been able to clear the rights from the publishers. Here's the original cold opening, complete with Matt Smith cameo at the end...and here's the open they ended up using. It is sometimes said The BBC was responsible for this, but this is not true, as the rights to the theme music are held by a publisher, not the BBC (a similar licensing issue nearly resulted in the 1996 TV movie having to replace the theme music).
Freudian Slip: "Tonight I might say sexy words penis. I could even boobies by accident. Oh my vagina!"
Fun with Acronyms: One of the games Craig and Geoff like to play is making up meanings for CBS note (for the record, it's "Columbia Broadcasting System", although the full name hasn't been used since the 1970s).
January 6, 2011: His interview withAlex Kingston started out with some innocent laughter about her rabbit ring, after which he pulled out Sid the Cussing Bunny. The conversation, however, took a turn into Double Entendre territory when they started talking about how she loved...well..."rabbits". (For the record, "rabbit" specifically refers to the Rampant Rabbit, a brand-name vibrator from UK sex shop chain Ann Summers. In the UK, they're famous for their TV commercials, including a Christmas ad showing several women showing their "O-faces" set to the gently sung lyrics of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful".
Craig: Take a long look. Keep looking. Imagine how much fun the censor is having now. Imagine the censor thinking "Oh (censored), I should have put a time limit on this." Keep looking at the haggis. Try to think of a man's penis as you look at the haggis!
Also: "Mouth Organ" (i.e., harmonica), and as of late "Touch My Glittery Ball" and Craig's rusty trombone.
Actual sex slang is censored, so random phrases are implied to be sexual acts.
Directly addressed during one episode. When Craig asked the Scottish Karen Gillan if she could speak Gaelic, she stated that she couldn't, but did know one song in Gaelic, and proceeded to sing it. Afterward, he said that because of Standards and Practices, he asked what specifically she said. Karen said she had no idea (she could sing in Gaelic, just not understand it.) Craig turned to the camera and rather smugly said, "Your move, censors."
Gratuitous German: "FlügenWeb, Späcecode, Twit Zöne, Ass Möde...Check ze Tweets..."note ("Und also e-mails!")
Whenever Craig reads a Tweet or e-mail from a person living in a German-speaking country, he insists on reading it in a faux German accent.
Gratuitous Spanish: "Craig's Spanish Word Of The Day". His goal was to do the final show of 2010 entirely in Spanish, until he realized learning Spanish is...well, hard. The segments were subsequently replaced by such features as "Gardening Tips with Willie Nelson", "Style Tips with Tim Gunn", and "Summer Livin' with Sean Connery".
It Was His Sled:invoked Not directly used, but definitely talked about during one of his email sessions.
"Are you ready, film students??? It Was His Sled! Hahaha! Now you don't have to sit through THREE HOURS!"
I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Why British comedienne Hattie Hayridge appeared in a guest slot on the show; she turned up at the studio to watch the show, was spotted by Craig and invited on the show. (Hattie played the second Holly on Red Dwarf, which Craig had a guest role on {albeit a few years earlier}; that said, the British comedy mafia all tend to know each other anyway).
Ms. Fanservice: Beth the (fake) CBS censor, during her brief tenure on the show.
Multiple-Choice Past: Geoff tells many mutually-exclusive stories about how he died and became skeletal.
On the 7th Anniversary episode, Craig showed a fake clip of his very first monologue, which retconned Geoff as his original flesh-and-blood sidekick (with a strong resemblance to Josh Robert Thompson) who went on an ill-fated skydiving trip.
MythBusters: Craig and the Mythbusters team seem to have something going on, since they created a robot skeleton sidekick for him named Geoff Peterson.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Geoff Peterson's current voice bears a striking resemblance to that of George Takei. Indeed, his voice actor (Josh Robert Thompson) describes Geoff as "one part Snagglepuss, one part Vincent Price, and two parts George Takei".
No Budget: Craig has mentioned in several interviews that he can't do all the comedy bits he wants because the show's budget is extremely limited. Of course, being Craig he constantly picks on the minuscule budget during the show.
The only reason the show has multiple puppets is because they bought one and the producer was so happy they were on TV they sent several others.
Non-Human Sidekick: His variety of Hand Puppets, including (but not limited to) a unicorn, a dinosaur, a penguin, Kronos (King of the Monkey People), Brian the Shark, Agatha the Chicken, Wavy Rancheros the Waving Crocodile, Connery the Bull, the Swine Flu Comedy Pig, a sheepdog, a camel, a ball on a stick, Skully the flaming Ghost Rider skull on a stick, an owl that doesn't have a mouth, Sid the Cussing Bunny, Storm Trousers the Fourth from the Planet Thunderpants (one of the "People of Earth" intros), and himself.
According to his fans, Betty White and Mahmoud Ahmadinnerjacket (the President of Iran) are puppets as well.
The Other Darrin: Impersonator Josh Robert Thompson took over the role of Geoff from Craig after the character's first week on the show.
The Other Marty: Thompson himself was replaced from November 7-21, 2011 due to unavailability. Many well known actors and personalities like Alfred Molina, Larry King, and Thomas Lennon (Who turned Geoff into Khloe Banderas) were used in his place. Lennon again replaced Thompson between November 28-30, 2011.
Pantomime Animal: "Who's that at the door? IT'S SECRETARIAT!" (Participants in the Secretariat Dance receive "Team Secretariat" t-shirts.)
Patchwork Map: Whenever Craig asks for a map of an area, such as Italy, the map appears with such fake places as the Sea of Borat, Narnia — and, in one Italy example, Mario Bros. Island.
Precious Puppies: The time that Craig brought his French bulldog, Cabbage, on the show (April 13, 2009). He actually seemed pretty dismayed at the audience's reaction.
Craig: Why did you laugh when the dog came on, and then when I came on, you went "Awwww...."?
Priceless Ming Vases: Supposedly loaned to Craig from the Getty Museum for the first show of 2011, and destroyed by Secretariat during the Tweetmail segment.
Rearrange the Song: Not long after it was introduced, the theme song was re-done a little and had a line added ("You can always sleep through work tomorrow").
Replacement Flat Character: Craig has said on the air more than once that the purpose of having Geoff Peterson on the show is to make him seem less creepy and weird by comparison, even invoking original Trope NamerNiles Crane as a precedent.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Played with; Wavy Rancheros is pretty friendly and likes to wave, but rarely gets through a segment without talking about eating someone.
The Rival: Ferguson sometimes jokingly alludes to the competition with his counterparts at ABC (Jimmy Kimmel) and NBC (Jimmy Fallon, and before that Conan O'Brien), and occasionally interacts with them by proxy. Ferguson and Fallon have waved at each other with giant Mickey Mouse hands, and once sent each other Christmas gifts (a pair of kittens for Jimmy, a garish Christmas sweater for Craig) and displayed them on their respective shows.
Craig often self-mockingly refers to himself as "the Scottish Conan guy".
Whenever Craig asks for a picture of Cher, he gets one of Marilyn Manson.
Whenever Craig asks for a picture of Kim Jong Il, "That is one angry lesbian."
Whenever he mentions a network besides CBS he spits, but if said network airs the show of a guest he adds "but the show's good!"
Commenting on the nature of the audience's applause at the beginning of almost every show, usually about how it was coerced out of them by a warm-up comedian with candy.
Insisting that the show is done live when it quite obviously is not.
Secretariat, although he's added that he won't stop it until people stop sending him tweets telling him to stop it.
Craig and his ferrets. Occasionally, the camera will linger on the photograph for far too long.
Craig asking Geoff if he's ever visited a random location, and Geoff responding that he has a place there, note (where he likes to throw beads at people, take his clothes off, and go swimming) and Craig should come by sometime.
Early in the show's run, Craig would make repeated jokes about Bob Barker being a vampire.
When he mentions Elton John, he shows a picture of Elton from 1980's concert in Central Park, wearing the infamous◊ Donald Duck costume.
Self-Deprecation: Craig employs this a lot, with regard to himself as well as the show in general.
Shout Out: Many. Craig's anchorman schtick for "It's a great day for America, everybody" had him adjusting a dial which would briefly switch to Tijuana Taxi, then make a series of beeps before proceeding to deliver the "news" in a voice that usually was an impression of Walter Cronkite. note (The "beep" sound effects were typically used to open each CBS Evening News broadcast during Cronkite's tenure, making this even more likely to be an homage to him.)
Craig ran side-by-side his intro and the intro of a French talk show that's copied it. The host sings, plays drums, and ends up in a water fountain...same as Craig does. The logo even uses the same font as the Late Late Show graphic. The only difference is that the French show's intro didn't have any hand puppets and was shot from different angles.
Something Completely Different: For his 1,000th episode, Craig stayed off-camera and performed the whole show (including opening monologue, guest interviews, etc.) as Wavy.
On February 24, 2010, he did a show without the usual Studio Audience or comedy bits, and featuring only one guest (Stephen Fry). As Craig explained in the opening, it was intended as a sort of homage to Tom Snyder.
Sound Effect Bleep: During the the teaser and the monologue, the censors pixilate Craig's mouth and mute the audio when he swears. When one of the puppets swears (i.e., Sid or Wavy Rancheros), there's a beep and sometimes pixilation over their mouths. During other segments of of the show, the censors place CG flags of other nations over the mouths of Craig, Geoff and the guests, accompanied by speeded-up audio of Craig saying a phrase supposedly associated with that country. These include;
Spanish flag: "Oh, did I swear four times already?" ¡AY CARAMBA! "That's five."
Take That: Against CBS, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, himself ("Take that...me.") — actually, pretty much anything and everything. He even does them against people he likes. "Take that...man who's been nothing but nice to me!"
For the closing credits of the last episode of Scotland week, The Imagineers (the Glasgow band who was the musical guest for all five shows) performed the full version of the theme.
The Teaser: The show opens with one of these every night. Sometimes takes the form of a mini-monologue from Craig, sometimes it's a backstage sketch with that night's guest, sometimes it's an all-singing, all-dancing musical lip-sync number.
Throwing Out The Script: Symbolising his free-wheeling interviewing style, Craig begins every interview by tearing up a set of palm cards that presumably contains his notes for the interview. Sometimes he says "We won't be needing these" for good measure.
Troll: Craig often taunts Geoff's inability to move more than 12 feet from an outlet, move his left arm or play the harmonica.
Twitter: Craig's on it, and has taken to answering viewer tweets along with their emails each night.
Originally, there were two separate stacks — yellow for tweets, white for emails. After two or three shows, it was changed to simply one stack with the tweets and emails randomly arranged within (although the tweets are identifiable by the picture of a random bird above the text).
UST: Played straight with many of the show's female guests. Some of the men, too. Especially if the guest opts for an awkward pause with sexual subtext to close out the interview.
Especially with Kristen Bell, who has such great chemistry with Ferguson she has appeared more times than any other guest and at one point lobbied to be hired as a full-time co-host. During a series of episodes shot in Paris, she did in fact serve in a co-host capacity, and the UST is referenced when the two actually have a "moment" (played for laughs) during one on-location sequence. In reality, the two are happily involved in other relationships; they just carry on as if they're involved.
He and James MacAvoy created a Vacuum of Scottish Charm.
for Excellence in Electronic Media for the episode A Night with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.Also the name of the longest-running chat show of all time, which is made and broadcast in Ireland. Originally presented by Gay Byrne (1961-99 with one season, 1968-69, taken by Frank Hall), he was succeeded by Pat Kenny (1999-2009) and Ryan Tubridy (2009-present).
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