The three creators of the Emmy-nominated comedy series ‘Hacks’ had no idea they were predicting the future when they had their central late-night host character defiantly speak out against her network bosses and then lose her dream job. In this episode, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky break down the “surreal” parallels between Deborah Vance’s arc in Season 4 and the real-life tribulations of Stephen Colbert. They talk about the importance of late-night TV, what its future might hold, and reveal how they got Jimmy Kimmel to play a bully version of himself on the show. The trio also goes deep on casting leads Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, as well as this year’s Emmy-nominated guest stars Robby Hoffman and Dance Mom herself, Julianne Nicholson. And they tease what might be in store for Season 5—including why fans are so desperate for Deborah and Ava to finally hook up. 

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Akiva Schaffer prefers to stay behind the scenes. But that doesn’t mean he’s any less funny than his Lonely Island bandmates Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. The three middle school best friends started shooting videos right out of college before landing a plush gig making digital shorts for ‘Saturday Night Live,’ including hits like “Lazy Sunday,” “Dick in a Box,” “Jizz in My Pants” and many others. In this episode, Schaffer talks about their unusual path to SNL and how directing outrageous movies like ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ led him to take on a meta ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ reboot for Disney+ starring Samberg and John Mulaney—and now the huge ‘Naked Gun’ reboot starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. He also explains why he might be single handedly responsible for Netflix deciding to greenlight ‘I Think You Should Leave’ with Tim Robinson. 

This episode was originally published on May 24, 2022.

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Natasha Rothwell can be a bit defensive when it comes to her character on ‘The White Lotus.’ The actress, who just scored her second Emmy nomination for the hit HBO show, may have struggled at first to understand why Belinda did what she did at the end of Season 3. But she also believes she “deserves” what comes to her and gets why she ultimately decided to “f— the morality.” In her return to the podcast, Rothwell opens up about how she used her own past struggles with money to relate to her character on the show. As a former SNL writer herself, she reacts to the “White Potus” sketch that caused an uproar and frustrated her castmate Aimee Lou Wood. Rothwell also discusses how another co-star, Jason Isaacs, helped fuel rumors on real-life drama between cast members, reflects on the disappointing cancellation of her Hulu show ‘How to Die Alone,’ and explains why she has spent nearly a decade tweeting “you are trash” at Donald Trump every single day. 

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This is a fraught time to be a political comedian in America. It’s something Stephen Colbert learned when CBS suddenly canceled ‘The Late Show.’ And it’s something comedian Jena Friedman experienced in an even more visceral way the last time she crossed the border back home to the U.S. In her fourth appearance on The Last Laugh, Friedman weighs in on the end of the late-night show that served as her very first TV writing gig and tells the harrowing story of being grilled about her jokes by U.S. Customs and Border Security. She also talks about putting together her new TED talk on comedy and AI, recalls the time she nicknamed her fetus “Jeffrey Epstein” on Colbert’s show, and previews her new stand-up hour ‘Motherf---er’ about becoming a mom and losing her own mom at the same time. 

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Jameela Jamil no longer “gives a f---” what people think about her. After years spent trying to inspire fans with positive affirmations, the British presenter and actress has turned her attention to the subject of humiliating failure on a new comedy podcast called Wrong Turns. In this episode, Jamil reveals why she has moved away from trying to inspire people to action and instead has decided to become, in her words, a kind of shameless “failure pervert.” She also breaks down how landing her role as Tahani on the NBC sitcom ‘The Good Place’ had less to do with “imposter syndrome” and more with being an actual imposter, details why not knowing who Larry David was when they first met led to her officiating his second wedding, and shares a story about the time she inadvertently ended up pretending to be Priyanka Chopra at an awards ceremony. And, for the first time, Jamil addresses the backlash she received for declaring that she no longer plans to sit for written interviews with female journalists. 

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‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ writer Jenny Hagel has spent the entirety of Donald Trump’s political career writing and telling jokes that ride a precarious line between funny and offensive. But the difference between Hagel and Trump’s anti-woke comic crowd is that she only ever targets her own demographic. In this episode, Hagel breaks down her and Amber Ruffin’s long-running “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment, including how they got Hillary Clinton to join in after losing the 2016 election and why they are able to get away with outrageous punchlines that could get people with the wrong intentions canceled. She also discusses how ‘Late Night’ has changed during the second Trump term, reveals some secrets behind Seth Meyers’ popular “Day Drinking” bit, shares her reaction to NBC’s decision to kill ‘The Amber Ruffin Show,’ and teases her live comedy show ‘Jenny Hagel Gives Advice’ in which she bolds tells audience members how to live their lives. 

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Seth Meyers is currently vying for one of just three nomination spots in the late-night TV Emmys race. But ahead of the 2024 election, the comedian, ‘Saturday Night Live’ alum and host of NBC’s ‘Late Night’ was doing his best to stay in the present and take each new insane development as it comes. In this episode, Meyers talks about how he ended up releasing a stand-up special (‘Dad Man Walking’ on Max) that has nothing to do with politics so close to the election. He also shares thoughts about his infamous ice cream date with Joe Biden, why he regrets platforming JD Vance on his show, how SNL’s reliance on guest stars has changed the show since he was in the cast, and so much more.

This episode was originally published on October 30, 2024.

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For the first several years of his career, stand-up comedian Matteo Lane would open his sets by telling the audience, “Obviously, I’m gay.” At a certain point, he got tired of coming out to a room of strangers every night and instead begins his new Hulu hour ‘The Al Dente Special’ by making fun of the way white women talk—a bit that delighted Gayle King and led to one of the more awkwardly hilarious morning TV moments in recent history. In this episode, Lane explains why he decided to give the ‘CBS Mornings’ host a pass for repeating the “f-slur” back to him and reveals how King’s fellow astronaut Katy Perry ended up being part of his special as well. And as Pride Month comes to a close, he discusses why he’s sick of people expecting gay comedians to relive their trauma, shares why he avoids talking politics on stage, and calls out TV bookers for keeping him off of late-night TV because they deemed his act “too gay.” 

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Over the course of his 40-year career, Larry Charles has had two central creative relationships with Larry David (‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’) and Sacha Baron Cohen (‘Borat’ and  ‘Brüno’). Now, he reveals in a new memoir that he hasn’t spoken to either man in years. In his return to The Last Laugh podcast, Charles breaks down how it all fell apart with two comedians he still considers complicated geniuses. He shares stories about how ‘Seinfeld’ solved its early Elaine problem after Julia Louis-Dreyfus came to the creators sobbing and reveals why a young David Sedaris turned down an offer to write for ‘Seinfeld.’ Charles also discloses what exactly it was about his HBO documentary that Larry David couldn’t stand, shares his thoughts about friends Bill Maher and Cheryl Hines flirting with MAGA, explains why there was a time he would have literally “died” for Sacha Baron Cohen and what went so wrong with their final collaboration ‘The Dictator.’ 

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Justine Lupe thought there was no way she’d ever be able to top the experience of playing Willa on HBO’s ‘Succession.’ Then she got cast as Morgan, one of the “loser siblings” on the runaway Netflix hit ‘Nobody Wants This.’ They are two very different roles on two very different shows, but she says on this episode that she feels extremely “lucky” to get the opportunity to show both comedic and dramatic sides of herself on each. Fresh off of wrapping filming for Season 2 of ‘Nobody Wants This,’ Lupe talks about the pressure of satisfying fan expectations for her character’s complicated relationship with Timothy Simons’ Sascha. And she opens up about her deeply rewarding experience on ‘Succession,’ which was only supposed to be a handful of episodes before Willa became a central character, and even part of the Roy family, all the way until the very end. 

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