[troutman]

Viral Failure: How the Internet Killed Late-Night Comedy
http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...ate-night.html

Something has fundamentally and rapidly altered the late-night landscape, and it’s not hard to identify a likely culprit: the Internet.

In the year 2015, YouTube is mostly comprised of Jimmy Fallon playing stupid party games with celebrities. My Facebook feed is full of articles linking to videos of late-night hosts “tackling” or “breaking down” the social issue du jour. Twitter is where I am constantly entreated to listen to every host’s take on X, Y or Z. Late-night comedy now comes prepackaged in segments built for a never-ending digital media cycle. It’s like a Kit Kat bar—bland but easily shareable. If it’s true that the medium is the message, then the Internet has transformed late-night comedy into a homogenous mass of videos whose universal underlying message is “click on me.”

It’s a genuine creative crisis. Do today’s late-nights hosts want to entertain for an evening or do they want to build something long-lasting in the process?

As it stands, it’s concerning that some of the most timeless late-night comedy is happening on the lowest-rated of the traditional late-night talk shows: Conan. Unlike the other hosts, O’Brien still regularly does silly sketches and films elaborate remotes, even in places like Cuba and, most recently, Armenia. He’s still making stuff that’s built to last.


Conan's Armenia show was really good - funny and touching.