“Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” and the Regressive Visibility of the Diverse Late Night Writers’ Room

Abstract

ABSTRACT After Jon Stewart and David Letterman announced their respective retirements in 2015, the absence of diverse voices in late-night programming re-emerged as an important representational issue. Despite Aisha Tyler and Amy Schumer being considered for hosting roles, women were once again denied the opportunity to take over an established late-night franchise. Late-night talk shows’ historical whiteness and maleness remained onscreen, but industrial pressure pushed these series to hire more black and/or queer women writers, and other writers of color, to diversify their content and counter the white male hosts and their assumed universal perspectives. Using textual analysis of Late Night with Seth Meyers’ segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” and discourse analysis of late-night’s hiring practices, I argue that this celebration of diverse voices by late-night programs appears progressive, but the industrial decision to foreground these writers’ difference from the host’s more powerful position caters to primarily white audiences, and reinforces the patriarchal power dynamics and tokenism in place. Particularly when considering the industrial history of pushing women of color hosts to niche channels or syndication, a more inclusive understanding of late-night talk shows and their past and present representational and industrial politics is needed.