One of the less important, but still pretty important, aspects of the ongoing WGA strike is that I know very little about the news. I’m not super thrilled about that fact, but it’s true. We need to start paying writers for what they’re worth immediately because I desperately need to know what John Oliver would have to say about the recent OceanGate submersible implosion.
Don’t get it wrong, I am not trying to make light of the situation. It’s horrific and stomach-churning, but also so fucked up in so many ways, you can’t help but acknowledge the absurdity. A group of excessively wealthy men disregard expert opinions in order to test technology for rich people to play with and die horrifically just above the wreckage of the Titanic?
What’s behind the breakdown in scientific funding that space and ocean exploration are now playgrounds for the ultra-rich to shoot rockets and submarines into? Why isn’t there enough government oversight that corporations can’t charge people a quarter of a million dollars to ride in a tube to the bottom of the ocean? How the fuck is James Cameron now the voice of reason?
I feel like John Oliver and his staff would have a lot of insightful, humorous arguments to make about how things got to be this way (unchecked capitalism), and how to prevent it in the future (stop fucking with the ocean). He could handle both the absurdity and the tragedy without losing sight of either, and would make me having to listen to Ocean Guys talk about the ocean actually informative and entertaining. I am not exaggerating when I say, man, the news is usually boring.
Although even when it’s not boring, the news could still be helped by late night. Remember this?
Let’s hope so, because it was only two weeks ago that the former President of the United States was indicted FOR THE SECOND TIME. You know who would have loved that?
Amber Ruffin. I love her. In 2014 she was hired as a writer on Late Night With Seth Meyers, making her the first Black woman to write for a network late night show. The first. Ever. In 2014. Whoo. In addition to writing, she does a bunch of on air segments, including “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” and this time she called Trump a raggedy bastard. She then got her own show, The Amber Ruffin Show, on Peacock. I’m so, so angry that I don’t get to hear her laugh about Trump’s terrible month and general dumbassery. I have been robbed of the joy of watching her explain, “They kept the boxes in the shower! Classified documents in boxes next to the toilet! He was in charge of the country!” She would have loved this so much.
Also her “Amber Says What” segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and we don’t get to have it because people in charge think writing the words that people say on the shows we all love so much aren’t that important. They can just pay AI to write the story explaining why Cardi B is mad at the stepson of one of the dead Titanic submarine passengers for going to a Blink-182 show after he also tweeted at an OnlyFans model asking her to sit on him. All of those words are true, and also somehow are wrong.
But here’s the real reason we’re here. If you miss late night as much as I do, especially Amber Ruffin and Late Night With Seth Meyers, you should listen to Corrections: The Podcast. You might remember that Meyers decided to really lean into the pandemic weirdness. He started filming his show from home, finally settling into the attic and talking to a painting of a sea captain. He also decided to never wear a suit again because Casual Seth is the Best Seth. When Meyers and his crew finally did return to the studio, well, I’ll let the True Crime-ish narrator give you the play-by-play of Seth’s descent into madness, but it’s good. It’s good and it deserves to be recognized as such. Support labor, support the written word, and fucking pay them already. I’ve got submarines to learn about.
