Less than a week after becoming a U.S. citizen, CBS late night host Craig Ferguson announced on his show last night (scroll down, second story) that he is going to speak at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 26.
This is an interesting choice, since they played it safe last year by having impressionist Rich Little perform. I wonder if Ferguson will go the safe route or go the route of Stephen Colbert, who took the opportunity to skewer the current administration (here's part one, part two, and part 3).
It's going to be fun to see Ferguson out of his late night show for a change. I like the way he does his monologue, a little looser and story-oriented than the other late night show openings), but too much of that, for my taste, gets to be a little too much. And the less said about his "desk talk," all that talk about "naughty monkeys" and the overuse of sound effects and asides, the better. This speech will be all about the writing and the jokes, so it's going to be interesting to see what he comes up with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-05-2008 @ 3:06PM
Oreo said...
Awesome! I think this is a perfect pick, he won't play it too safe, but he won't piss off Bush too much like Cobert did.
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2-05-2008 @ 5:21PM
Joey Geraci said...
If only Ferguson was funny...
Seriously, I had to fight the urge to flee the room the last time I watched Ferguson (when he had Huckabee on. I don't think I have ever seen a case of a guest so outshine a host). Maybe that was a bad night for him, but he had writers for God's sake, and it was the most horrible thing I have ever seen on TV. Conan is a fucking god of comedy compared to the man.
2-05-2008 @ 5:37PM
Peter Lynn said...
The corny sound effects really ruin it for me. They make me change the channel immediately. I think Ferguson is a class act. His tribute to his recently deceased father was genuinely moving, and his taking the high road with regard to Britney Spears showed real integrity. So I really wish I simply liked the show better.
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2-05-2008 @ 10:43PM
Cody said...
The Ferg is by far the funniest guy in late night television. His "desk talk" is the best part. He's the only one of them that really seems to love what they do and care about the audience. Maybe Conan too, but Fergie just outshines him. When Conan moves an hour earlier in 2009, I'll be pretty much the happiest fish in the sea.
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2-07-2008 @ 3:19AM
Lego Vasavouchi said...
I absolutely adore Craig, I never miss a show no matter how early I have to get up the next day. I think everything about his show is great, and his brand of humor is truly genuine. Always titillating, never disappointing, he's positively delicious, I think he'll have a fine time at the White House. Knock 'em dead, pigeon.
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4-27-2008 @ 4:13PM
christan said...
I watched Craig's performance at the dinner. It was wonderful to watch him get in some artful jabs above the belt, while still being able to dodge offending the powers surrounding him.
For me, the most moving and stirring comments came at the end when he put away his rehearsed jokes and spoke from the heart, where his patriotism is so genuine it shames most of us born Americans. While he looked directly at the audience of journalist assembled, he reminded them of their sacred trust NOT to AGREE, but that to disagree with one another is exactly what America is about.
It received a rousing round of applause and well deserved standing ovation. Unfortunately, in the reports of the dinner which followed the next day, over 35 papers ran stories covering the event, in which all but TWO of them said exactly the same thing. Not even a word changed! Now in school, we used to call that plagerism, but I guess when you're a journalist you can call it news.
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