TVSquad

If you asked the average TV watcher what celebrity makes the funniest late night interviews, news anchors would probably be the furthest answer from their minds. It would also just be after physicists, felons convicted of violent crimes and Joaquin Phoenix.

Lately, however, one dedicated newsman has become the most entertaining guest on the late night talk show circuit with the kind of timing, humor and comedic gravitas that even some so-called "professional" comedians have trouble displaying. It could with the greatest of ease turn his own news program into the most hilarious show on television, if the news he reported didn't make us want to jab a corkscrew in our eyes.

That man is NBC's Brian Williams.

Most anchors of Williams' grade have a good time with their talk show appearances. It's their visual vacation away from the anchor desk where even cracking a smile can ruin the marble cake-thick seriousness their programs demand. But Williams takes it to another level of an almost Eugene Mirman caliber of surrealist and deadpan comedy.

He's actually funny, sometimes without any help from the people who are interviewing him. He can not only crack a joke that's funny, but he has the style and stoic nature to back it up. In a way, he almost tricks his audiences into believing that what he is saying his real, only to pull them back in on the joke and yell "Surprise!" without having to throw confetti and jump out from behind an office desk that hasn't been cleaned since God knows when.

He can also use his serious take on things such as the economy as a great set-up to another bit, just to throw the audience off. His last appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien featured such a moment when for no reason, he launched into a verbal love letter with fast food, particularly the Arby's Roast Beef and Cheese sandwich and the airport Cinnabon. He spoke about it with such conviction and flowing oratory that the only way I couldn't have found it funny is if a surgeon had physically removed my sense of humor.

Then he can jab and play the dozens with the best of them. He has a quick wit that doesn't just deliver a swift jab to the face but can also land a series of severe body blows in rapid succession that can knock even the quickest comedian right on their ass. Take, for instance, his most recent appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His seriousness at his own jokes gives him the comedy power of 1,000 comedy traffic schools. Then when Stewart is forced to rip up the notes he prepared for the interview, Williams lets the flood gates of funny loose.


So what does this mean for NBC? Well, we probably won't be seeing any loose pies thrown around the NBC Nightly News set or the introduction of Clappy, the Nightly News Stock Market Chipmunk. The good news is if Jimmy Fallon falls flat, they have a great spare tire in their trunk.