It was a great day for America, everybody

February 11, 2022 11:48 AM

Circa 2010, after David Letterman signed off and the Worldwide Pants production logo faded, viewing audiences were oftentimes treated to a cold open of an empty talk show set... one that quickly became the impromptu dance floor for a shameless Scot making an absolute giddy fool of himself while lip-syncing pop songs alongside a menagerie of puppets (and a couple of scantily-costumed stagehands). Preserved on YouTube for your viewing pleasure, the complete collection of Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show musical numbers: "Say Hey (I Love You)" [Michael Franti & Spearhead] - "White Lines" [Duran Duran] - "Wonderful Night" [Fatboy Slim] - "Istanbul" [They Might Be Giants] - "Oops!...I Did It Again" [Britney Spears] - "MMMBop" [Hanson] - "In the Navy" [Village People] - "Fireball" [Don Spencer] - "I'm Yours" [Jason Mraz] - "The Lonely Goatherd" [The Sound of Music] - "She Taught Me How To Yodel" [ Frank Ifield] - "Fire!" [Arthur Brown] - "Monster Mash" [Boris Pickett] - "Over At the Frankenstein Place" [Rocky Horror Picture Show] - "I Melt with You" [Modern English] - "Addicted to Love" [Robert Palmer] - "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" [Trace Adkins] - "Ça Plane Pour Moi" [Plastic Bertrand] - "Scottish Rite Temple Stomp" [Ninian Hawick] - "Look Out, There's a Monster Coming" [Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band] - "Chant of the Wanderer" [Sons of the Pioneers] - "Take Your Tongue Out of My Mouth" [Jeff Daniels] - "You've Got a Friend" [James Taylor] - "Dracula's Lament" [Jason Segel] - "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" - The lost "Dr. Who" cold open - The show's full theme song, "Tomorrow's Just Your Future Yesterday" - The spectacular farewell number: "Bang Your Drum" [Dead Man Fall]

The comprehensive Late Late Show w/ Craig Ferguson Archive on YouTube - Playlists - Community posts

Craig Ferguson crying from laughter compilation - part 2 - part 3

Puppets, Dancing, And Pop Music: Ranking Craig Ferguson's Best 'Late Late Show' Lip Sync Bits

More (non-musical) Late Late Show puppet intros: Dragon (and the world's worst ventriloquist) - Shark - Unicorn - Snail - Craig (don't watch this one if you want to sleep tonight.) See also "Wavy the Waving Alligator", the show's signature puppet: Accent - HD Wavey vs. Crap-o-vision Wavey - Wavy and Charles - Wavy and Lauren Graham (as Nadine the Kitten) - Interviewing Kristen Bell on the 1000th episode

Like the puppets? You can buy some of your own from Folkmanis Puppets, the show's official supplier.

Other important moments: The Peabody-winning interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu - "If you don't vote, you're a moron." - Bob Barker and his posse destroy the set - And don't miss the bizarre story of shameless French copycat Arthur [working video link]

The saga of Geoff Peterson, the robot skeleton sidekick built by the late Mythbuster Grant Imahara:

Construction montage - introduced with (what else?) a musical open - interviewing Grant - Geoff makes Craig cry - "Careful, Icarus" - The voice of Geoff Peterson revealed - A multi-hour compilation of Geoff's celebrity guest voiceovers

The show's increasingly bizarre Twitter/email jingles

*ding dong* Who's that at the door? The story of Secretariat! (An idea also borrowed by Arthur)

A fun interview round-up from MeFite kmz - The Late Late Show on TVTropes

Craig Ferguson previously on Mefi: Eulogizing his father - Discussing the poisonousness of celebrity voyeurism and his own battle with alcoholism - Hosting the 2008 White House Correspondents Dinner - Explaining the logic behind the Jonas Brothers - Calling out a Mefite for suggesting his audience was a laugh track (original video) - The original version of this very post - Dancing with the Mythbusters - The "lost" Doctor Who cold open - A conversation with Dr. Cornel West - The saga of the shameless French copycat Arthur - Guest starring in a Toby Keith's music video - A Rocky Horror performance by Amanda Palmer, Stephin Merritt and Moby [working video link] - Omar Little meets Craig Ferguson and Skeleton Robot Larry King. (With a cameo by Secretariat.) - A conversation with Stephen Fry - Craig Ferguson is moving on - Replaced by James Corden - Whither a female host? - The final episode

This Frankenstein post brought to you by #DoublesJubilee -- original discussions here and here!

posted by Rhaomi (52 comments total)

I've been thinking a weird lot recently about how much I miss Craig Ferguson as a public figure. Maybe the pinnacle of talk show hosts with substance, for me.

Ask yourself the three things you must always ask yourself before you say anything:

1) Does this need to be said
2) Does this need to be said by me?
3) Does this need to be said by me now?

His monologue about Britney Spears was bold, courageous, heartfelt, and still feels like it's more empathetic than we are collectively ready for.
posted by rorgy at 11:54 AM on February 11, 2022 [35 favorites]

In one of those original discussions I say something about how it feels like Craig is "trying too hard". I wanna go back in time to find myself from when I said that and take myself out for ice cream and tell me to lighten the hell up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:54 AM on February 11, 2022 [19 favorites]

Thank you, I needed this!
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 11:57 AM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I so miss Craig, (and Geoff). But glad he left before the last Presidency happened.

"Have you ever been to Washington D.C. Geoff...?"
posted by Windopaene at 11:59 AM on February 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

Oh - and about that final video for "Bang Your Drum". Craig was originally trying to get the band to come do the song live on the show, but something went pear-shaped and they wouldn't be able to get the visas processed in time. So Craig did that instead. He later sat in with the band on a gig in Scotland as well (VERY poor quality fan-made video here).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:00 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

God, I miss that man.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:01 PM on February 11, 2022 [12 favorites]

I really miss Craig on TV. The only TV show we've ever been in the studio audience for was LLS/CF and it was a pleasure to watch him (and Geoff) work up close.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:01 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I miss Craig Ferguson, but I think his exit was perfectly timed (yeah, it could have just not happened, but he got out while everyone liked him).

Then we got Corden and while I cannot say anything bad about him (except for that traffic-blocking thing), I also don’t have anything good to say, either.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:03 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

bizarre! another brain-in-the-vat moment where I stumble into yet another wildly congruent blip, courtesy of MeFi.. I submit:
- casual viewer of Craig Ferguson clips on YT, but missed the actual phenomenon
- haven't really thought about it much for months/years, whatever it even is
- cancelled Netflix yesterday, found myself eating dinner with my partner last night and regretting the loss of Netflix and we pulled up Ferguson's New York (post LLS) performance on YT and nothing about it made me necessarily want to watch it, but minutes followed minutes and by the end I was just.. yeah, time well spent with Craig Ferguson.

He does not make me laugh out loud, I do like a Scots accent, I really don't know what it is about Ferguson but I'd be surprised if you told me he's not a reasonably decent human being.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:09 PM on February 11, 2022

Craig and Fiona was a classic interview
posted by Lanark at 12:14 PM on February 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Another video I love which isn't covered by anything above:

The day that he officially was sworn in as an American citizen, he devoted a good chunk of that episode to that, addressing it in his opening monologue and showing some video of the actual event. And at the end he brings out a Celtic punk band called The Wicked Tinkers to jam with them "in case any of my former brethren are wondering if I stopped being Scottish when I became American." I think this answers that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:16 PM on February 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

Oh shit, that part in "In the Navy" where he holds up the hook and lip-syncs, "Can't you see we need a hand?" Beautiful.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:17 PM on February 11, 2022

I missed out on watching Ferguson regularly (travelling, not watching tv, etc.) when he was on, but everything I've seen from him has always so impressed me - from the first thing I saw (the Britney Spears speech), to the analysis of Doctor Who ("intellect and romance triumphs over brute force"). I had no idea there were also puppets, bondage wear and lip-syncs - I have so much more to discover.
posted by jb at 12:27 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

For about five years, I never missed an episode of his show. I didn't always catch it at night, but Craig could make you laugh no matter what time of day it was. But beyond that, he wasn't afraid to be honest, to be personal, and to experiment. There's no one doing anything close to what he was doing with the format these days.
posted by HiddenInput at 12:33 PM on February 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

Oh! and "Science Fiction Double Feature"! My favourite song from that movie - and often forgotten next to the more famous ones. Richard O'Brien has such a beautiful voice when he sings high.
posted by jb at 12:34 PM on February 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

There's no one doing anything close to what he was doing with the format these days.

Or any other TV format, frankly.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:36 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh another good one - in 2009, before he was The 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi came on the show to promote the film In the Thick Of It. But Craig and Peter were buddies who'd been in a band together in Scotland when they were young and hungry, and spent most of their time talking about The Old Days, including a story about meeting up with each other when each one was on an acid trip...

(I really, really, REALLY wish Craig had held onto the show just long enough to bring Peter on one more time when Peter was The Doctor because CAN YOU IMAGINE)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 PM on February 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

We didn't deserve Craig Ferguson.
posted by touchstone033 at 1:14 PM on February 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

Craig and Puppets doing Wonderful Night has been on my "I need a reason to go on living because I'm not sure right now I can" YouTube playlist.

I can report that it still has the desired effect.
posted by BrashTech at 1:21 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

His tribute to his Dad. Man.
posted by skippyhacker at 1:32 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh, looks like we're almost out of time.
Awkward pause? Or mouth organ?
posted by bartleby at 1:53 PM on February 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

WHAT TIME IS IT SHADOE STEVENS!?
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:07 PM on February 11, 2022

The audiobook version of his autobiography is a sheer delight. Highly recommend.
posted by merriment at 2:46 PM on February 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Craig and Fiona was a classic interview

Heh.
Craig: Do you have glaucoma?
Fiona: Yes *wink*
posted by Thorzdad at 2:53 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

There’s comedy series on either Netflix or Prime, and it documents his last comedy tour, sometime in the Trump years. It’s well worth the time. It quite enjoyable.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:55 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Geoff makes Craig cry

What a fun bit of synchronicity! I just watched this again at lunch, and laughed until I cried, and texted the link to a friend.

I miss that show so much.
posted by johnofjack at 3:00 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I got pretty helpless with laughter myself while repeatedly listening to Geoff imitate grumpy Wilford Brimley at the salad bar (at about 9:50): "I'm a decent man, I'm tryin'a eat a salad here...snappin' yer damn phones - I got diabeetus!"
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:08 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is marvelous. I love that Duran Duran cover of White Lines but it is one heck of a deep cut. I am delighted.
posted by rednikki at 3:21 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Have you ever seen deadpan Steven Wright actually crack up? Here's 2 hours of him honing his improv skills onvisiting with Craig.

I also miss Geoff very much. Where's his spinoff series? Bones doesn't count.

PS: Ass Möde. Whatever it is, it is.
posted by zaixfeep at 3:42 PM on February 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

I also really miss the LL Show. Maybe I've forgotten enough to watch them all again. For all the crazy anarchic shit Craig could actually be a really good interviewer on more serious topics, his interview with Stephen Fry comes to mind. I think that's not really what they wanted the show to be and the vast majority of the guests were just actors promoting whatever, so not many opportunities, but I'd love to watch a basic show or even youtube channel or podcast where he interviews people, has fun, makes jokes but also gets into some deeper stuff. (Stephen Colbert is similar, guy's a genius, he's been able to stretch a bit on TLS but still not very often.) But it seems like he's mostly done standup since the end of the Late Late show, plus whatever that gameshow is.
posted by thefool at 4:05 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Awkward pause? Or mouth organ?

Is that 'code'?
posted by Hardcore Poser at 4:07 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I never watched any late night show-ish type thing with any regularity, unless Graham Norton counts. Apparently I was missing out, at least with Craig.
posted by mollweide at 4:21 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

This post is excellent, thank you for making it!
posted by gc at 4:28 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Have you ever seen deadpan Steven Wright actually crack up?

Given the subject, I should note I didn't mean literally.
posted by zaixfeep at 4:29 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I adored Ferguson's show but it aired during the doldrums of the W years and it made me a little squirmy that I could never quite figure out Ferguson's politics. Things were GRIM, the headlines were a daily horror show, and he had a bit of a vague "both sides" thing going on. He was commendably open about so many things, but he kept his politics hazy. Even his White House Correspondents Dinner thing didn't really give away his leanings, which is quite feat, really.

I sure miss the guy but I also feel like he probably got out at the right moment. His show was juuust starting to feel a little tired, a little rote. Guys like Letterman and Colbert started off with such fire, they were real innovators, but then that early spark faded and they just kept churning out shows for years and years. (Weirdly enough they both seemed to lose the last of their specialness right when they moved to CBS. It's like giving up their mojos was part of the contract.) I remembering thinking Ferguson was at the point where he might make that transition and spend the rest of his career kind of coasting, but instead he quit the talk show business. In hindsight it was probably the right decision, but I don't know if he'll ever find a better forum for his talents... and boy, did he leave an empty spot on the TV dial.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:31 PM on February 11, 2022

Awkward pause? Or mouth organ?
Is that 'code'?
Oh sorry, an explanation for non-viewers:
That thing on late night chat shows, where they're doing an interview but have to end it short, because there's only 50 seconds or so before they have to cut to a commercial?
On most shows, they just pan over to the band, or a title card or something, to stretch it out.
On his show, Ferguson would instead turn to the guest and offer them a choice - an awkward pause where they dont talk, just look around and wait. Or Craig would give the guest a new-in-box mouth organ (another word for harmonica) and the two would attempt to play until the fade out.
posted by bartleby at 4:33 PM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I adored Ferguson's show but it aired during the doldrums of the W years and it made me a little squirmy that I could never quite figure out Ferguson's politics.

I hear this. I didn't really key on his politics, but there was a certain "seat filler" feeling I got for no particular reason (probably just a hangover of the Conan drama). But the show kept going, and I'd check out clips that were posted and they'd be good, and then the Geoff thing, and other anniversaries or rituals or inside jokes kept piling up, and after a while I concluded that there was something there that I was missing out on that I just hadn't got. I don't think it was an age thing, I think that maybe I resented him, that if I had a talk show, it might probably turn out as something like what he was doing (but not as good, because that's not my career).

It reminds me of something a friend described as "the more similar you are to someone, the more glaring your differences," and I fully believe that was the case with what I think of now as "the great Craig Ferguson." He was like a combination of old real-life friends with the banter and the irreverence and maybe not 100% of the jokes landing, which is so true to life, but alas I don't see those friends so much anymore and that is where the rub comes in.
posted by rhizome at 5:15 PM on February 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

Craig Ferguson interviewing Dylan Moran was the first I'd seen of Craig - I love Stephen Wright and I'm excited to go down this rabbit hole.
posted by bendy at 7:23 PM on February 11, 2022

Dang it, Steven Wright.
posted by bendy at 7:30 PM on February 11, 2022

Craig Ferguson is the best interviewer ever.
posted by Gadarene at 8:08 PM on February 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think that's because he's not bringing an agenda to the conversation, and he's genuinely very curious about people. He's willing to let the conversation go wherever it happens to go. And I got the impression that often, guests were pleasantly surprised that they weren't being pushed into the usual product-flogging script that they were clearly sick of, and could instead have a more interesting conversation. There's a YouTuber that compiles "all # appearances" (or all the ones they can find) of a particular guest, and it's fun to watch some of those guests quickly go from baffled/uncomfortable on their first visit to enthusiastic on subsequent ones because they knew it was going to be fun instead of a chore.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:00 PM on February 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

He’s the only person who seems to have successfully had an on-air conversation with Richard Ayoade, as well.

And speaking of pop music, while I’ve only seen a few episodes in their entirely, his Kraftwerk gags always cracked me up.
posted by droplet at 9:33 PM on February 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

A true gem - he and his show/sidekicks were whimsical, smart, serendipitous, funny, bizarre, and so much more. Thanks for the post and many links!
posted by davidmsc at 9:12 AM on February 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just as a note for the "I can't figure out his politics" crowd: the memoirs he wrote during that time were clear about his personal feelings, but they were definitely never going to fly past CBS's execs or older demographic, nor past the pretty-conservative by that time Letterman/Worldwide Pants. (Those memoirs are also really funny and poignant and well-written, and of course the audiobook is narrated by the author. Also I see he released another one in 2019, downloading that now.) I don't think at the time he identified as shockingly leftist but was probably moderate enough on a Scottish scale to fall closer to democratic socialism in the US.

But another reason he tried to stay neutral-ish in public is that he was in the process of obtaining US citizenship at the start of the show (something that meant a great deal to him; his book "American on Purpose" is about the process and reasons) and would have been seen as an "outsider" criticizing a system that wasn't his. He was also the father of a young child, with a lot of regrets about the consequences of his behavior in his first marriage before he got sober, and still feeling somewhat precarious about his sobriety. Professionally on television he wasn't going to push any major boundaries, but he did in his comedy and writing.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:39 AM on February 12, 2022 [11 favorites]

I think the "'I can't figure out his politics' crowd" was mostly me, so I'll clarify. I didn't tune into his show expecting sharp political takes. It wasn't that kind of show. But Ferguson's vagueness about politics left me room to wonder if he was actually a conservative who was keeping it quiet. As I said, I loved his show. I admired the hell out of the guy, and it would've broken my heart to find out he was secretly best buds with Republican senators or something. While the Trump era has made it easy to forget just how shitty the Republicans were when Ferguson's show was airing, they were really evil in their own right. It was a bad time to be "both sides," but it wasn't as bad then as it is now. Nowadays if you're a both sides comedian you're either a secret fascist... or you write for SNL.

I never read his memoirs but I do remember Googling "Craig Ferguson politics" a few times and never getting a solid answer. His vagueness seemed airtight. Lyn Never gives some compelling reasons why Ferguson would've wanted to keep his politics quiet. Like, I may take issue with the results of his vagueness, but as a human being I can certainly understand how he got there. I'm relived to (finally!) learn that he's not secretly conservative.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:21 PM on February 12, 2022

More recently (2020-2021) Craig has been hosting a US game show called "The Hustler" which is pretty entertaining and smarter than most "briefcase full of money" game shows.

It starts with 5 people answering trivia questions (collaboratively) but one of them is secretly a plant who knows all of the answers. They hold votes to eliminate a contestant but only the Hustler's vote counts. If the remaining contestants identify the Hustler they get the money, otherwise he/she gets it.

Season 2 of it is on Hulu, I haven't tracked down S1 yet.
posted by mmoncur at 12:37 AM on February 13, 2022

like I said upthread, Ferguson's humour did not have a tendency to make me laugh out loud.. but the little snippets I caught of the show (YT clips and whatnot) did tend to make my heart/mood feel good. After watching a few, I came away with a very good impression of what he tried to achieve with the show.. let's face it, he was an entertainer and gods know we all want to be entertained, but he managed to do that and still make it seem like he was present (not a simulacra of disparate elements that add up to whatever we expect with a late show host).

whatever his politics, and even if he was "secretly conservative" (not sure what that means), wouldn't we be so lucky if more people were "secretly conservative"
posted by elkevelvet at 10:59 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Some celebrities are conservative but they keep it quiet because they don't want to alienate their fans and/or they believe it will cost them jobs in Hollywood. Sometimes they maintain a non-political or both-sides facade for years and then one day they have a Twitter meltdown where they start ranting about how the media is unfair to Trump or they reveal themselves as transphobic or anti-immigrant or whatever. In Ferguson's case his political vagueness made me wonder if he was more conservative than he was letting on. I would have been very disappointed to learn that he was a W fan on the down low. Turns out he's not.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:07 PM on February 13, 2022

IIRC, Craig had an interview with Stan Lee in which Craig didnt mention Marvel in his introduction and they didnt say one word about Marvel in the interview. And it was wonderful.
posted by Billiken at 7:38 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

> Awkward pause? Or mouth organ?
Is that 'code'?

Oh sorry, an explanation for non-viewers:

Bartleby, I think that this person is riffing on "Is that code?" being one of Geoff's catchphrases.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:25 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

BALLS
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:56 AM on February 14, 2022

He did have Alex Salmond on once to talk about Scottish independence. I'd think that would be a clue.
posted by Ampersand692 at 9:16 AM on February 16, 2022