9 of the most memorable late night moments from 2020 (so far)

When you think of late night TV, you probably think of comedy monologues and light-hearted sketches.

But that’s not all it is. The shows put together by the likes of Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert are also a way to unpack the day’s headlines and make sense of the news. In times where it sometimes feels as though there isn’t much to laugh about — i.e. most of 2020 so far — that can be a valuable service.

From the way the hosts handled broadcasting from their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic, to the powerful interviews that came in response to the George Floyd protests, here are some of the key late night moments from the first half of 2020…

1. Stephen Colbert delivering his monologue to an empty theatre.

In March, shortly after the coronavirus had been classed as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, it was announced that many of the late night shows would be going without audiences from March 16. But it all happened a lot quicker than that. In the video above, Stephen Colbert suddenly found himself turning an audience-free rehearsal into the main, televised event.

“We’re just kind of winging it,” smiled the Late Show host, occasionally sipping whiskey between jokes. “This is a rehearsal right now.”

But in classic Colbert fashion, he nailed it.

2. And then broadcasting from his bathtub.

After disappearing for a few days over the weekend — and amid uncertainty as to when the late night shows would even be returning — Colbert made a sudden reappearance, sitting in a suit in his foam-filled bathtub for “a very special social distancing edition of The Late Show.”

Despite the mildly squashed resolution and the eerie lack of background laughter, there was something comforting about seeing Colbert on our screens again. His monologue was an important turning point for the late night shows, too, marking the beginning of a DIY approach that all the hosts eventually adopted during lockdown.

3. Jimmy Fallon’s daughter interrupting his interview with some important news.

One of the key, recurring trends for these home editions of the late night shows? Interruptions.

Interruptions from small children, specifically. This was something Jimmy Fallon found himself on the receiving end of regularly, and each time it happened it was golden.

The most adorable moment by far, though, came when his daughter Winnie crashed a video interview with Russell Wilson and Ciara to proudly announce that she’d lost a tooth.

4. And this brutal interruption from Tina Fey’s daughter.

While the interruptions from Fallon’s kids were cute, Tina Fey’s daughter opted for a slightly more no-nonsense approach.

In the interview above on Late Night with Seth Meyers, she wandered into the shot, stony-faced, before slowly making the shape of an “L” on her forehead — all while staring directly into the camera.

“We’re not losers!” yelled a chuckling Meyers as Fey’s daughter ran away, giggling. But it was too late: the burn had already been delivered.

5. Samuel L. Jackson’s sweary PSA about staying at home.

Sometimes it’s good to be blunt. This was the tactic Samuel L. Jackson adopted during an early lockdown appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he read a poem from author Adam Mansbach designed to stop people from venturing outside.

“The ‘rona is spreading, this shit is no joke, it’s no time to work, or roam,” read Jackson. “The way you can fight it is simple, my friends: Just stay the fuck at home.”

Beautifully put.

6. Trevor Noah speaking about George Floyd.

Shortly after the police killing of George Floyd, who died after an officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe, Trevor Noah posted the above response.

“I don’t know what made that video more painful to watch,” he said. “The fact that that man was having his life taken in front of our eyes; the fact that we were watching someone being murdered by someone whose job is to protect and serve; or the fact that he seemed so calm doing it.”

Over the next 18 minutes, Noah shared his thoughts on the video and the resulting protests against police brutality, before relaying a powerful message to those criticising the protests.

“If you think about that unease that you felt watching that Target being looted, try to imagine how it must feel for black Americans when they watch themselves being looted every single day,” Noah said. “Because that’s fundamentally what’s happening in America: Police in America are looting black bodies.”

7. Jimmy Fallon reacting to his past blackface sketch, and talking about anti-racism.

The week after the first police brutality protests that followed George Floyd’s death, Jimmy Fallon’s show started on a much more serious note than usual.

“Seeing what is going on in our country, I’m not going to have a normal show tonight,” Fallon said. “I’m going to have a different kind of show. I’m going to start this personally and then expand out, because that’s where we all need to start. With ourselves, and looking at ourselves in the mirror.”

Fallon went on to address an old Saturday Night Live sketch — recently resurfaced on Twitter — in which he’d worn blackface to do an impression of comedian Chris Rock.

Fallon said that he loves and respects Rock, and isn’t racist, but that he’d kept getting advised to stay quiet and not say anything about the old sketch.

“I thought about it and I realised that I can’t not say I’m horrified and I’m sorry, and I’m embarrassed,” he said. “And what that small gesture did for me was break my own silence. And what then I started to do was talk to some experts, some of which are here tonight, and this week, and I realised that silence is the biggest crime that white guys like me and the rest of us are doing.

“The world is screaming, and it is angry, and we all need to figure out a way to take the anger — which of course is just sadness, and fear — and do something with it. Try to actually dig this up.”

Fallon then embarked on a week of interviews with black activists, journalists and comics, starting with Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, who Fallon spoke with about what it means to be anti-racist.

8. Reggie Watts and James Corden discussing racism.

“There is not one person in the world who woke up this morning and thought, ‘I need to know what James Corden thinks about all of this.'”

That was how The Late Late Show host began his first monologue after the protests started. But what could have ended up feeling like hollow lip service from a celebrity actually ended up becoming an emotional conversation about racism, after Corden spoke with his colleague Reggie Watts over Zoom. 

“It’s hard,” Watts told Corden, “there’s so much happening. And I want to use my platform for good […] It’s a weird time. I go in and out, you know, I get set off by anything. And I feel like there’s also a pressure — it’s like, if you’re of colour, you’ve got to represent your whole crew. I grew up all my life really fighting to just be a human being, and to not have people affected by the way that they look. But I also know that that’s just a reality. So, you know, I’m trying my best just to process and be responsible with the platform I have.”

9. Amber Ruffin documenting her experiences with the police.

Over on Late Night with Seth Meyers, comedian and writer Amber Ruffin took over the top of the show for a week — sharing five different stories about her own experiences with the police in America.

From being pulled over by an aggressive cop to having a gun pointed at her for skipping down an alleyway, her experiences were as disturbing as they were eye-opening.

“Every black person I know has a few stories like that,” said Ruffin, after talking about a police officer who was so angry she thought he might kill her. “Many have more than a few.”