LNSM: re: Category 88

my birkin...and my other birkin

spoilers but…it’s too good to waste

I’ve been in quite a bit of pain since Emmy nominations were announced in June. Really. I’ve avoided writing this for two months. But, final round Emmy voting ends a week from today (on August 22) so now Sophie must make her choice. (sry dramatic)

Some context: Nine months ago I began a project that has since taken over my life.

Mike Shoemaker @shoemakermike

It's Friday and there's a new Late Night with @sethmeyers CORRECTIONS. Jackal it up in the comments with your favorite Corrections of the year, tagging it #bestof so we can have a year-end retrospective that I hope will run 6 hrs min.

youtube.comCORRECTIONS: Week of Monday, December 6Seth Meyers takes a moment to address some of the errors from this week of Late Night, like joking about Trump meeting the green M&M in 1986 and forgetting t...

Isabel Parigi @isabelparigi

@shoemakermike @sethmeyers I’m deeply embarrassed about this but I accidentally spent the whole day writing a definitive guide to watching corrections Bc of that correction that suggested making correction more self contained. It’a at 9 pgs, not even up to @seacaptainpolls yet

Isabel Parigi @isabelparigi

@shoemakermike @sethmeyers @seacaptainpolls Update. Unfortunately at 16 pages.

Embarrassing. I know. The project originally opened with this medium-funny little quip about LNSM:

Maybe you have a thing for under dogs. Always the Emmy nominee, never the Emmy winner. Maybe you’ve caught on that at least 15% of every show is directed towards a small, anonymous, group of insiders and you want to be a part of the 1%. Maybe you are an unemployed recent-graduate, live with your parents, and crave some normalcy…A schedule. STRUCTURE…and use late night TV as a way to keep the days from blending together.

“Always the Emmy nominee” was actually a bit of an exaggeration. “Always the *creative arts* Emmy (for writing) nominee never the *creative arts* Emmy winner.” would’ve been a more accurate statement. But! As many an award-show-freak knows, Seth and the LNSM family finally got the official Outstanding Variety Talk Series nom they so deserve. As expected, Corrections also received a nod in Category 88. If you frequent missing f…(girl, get help) you will know that way back in May I predicted a heated contest between my beloved Corrections and my less-loved but still enjoyed Digital Exclusives via John Oliver. I feared there was no entry point in Corrections for the average Emmy-voter. I feared Oliver’s Digital Exclusives would, at the very least, split the anti-karaoke bloc three ways instead of the typical two (Corrections vs. Digital Exclusive vs. Tooning Out the News). I was proven wrong. Sososo wrong.

Emmy-nom Tuesday should have been a celebratory affair. I dressed up. Put my coffee in a champagne flute. Set up my computer like a TV. Then, I saw it: my two favorite things, pit. against. each other.

Cred: Emmys

I Think You Should Leave. The perfect litmus test for meeting new people. The silver-lining to Comedy Central cancelling Detroiters. The comeback of the century (for hot dog culture). One of the primo examples of a category I call “Why is this on TV-good” (Spectrum: Why is this on TV-bad, inoffensive, funny-haha, funny-weird, Why is this on TV-good). I Think You Should Leave is chaos magic in a sketch show. It is NOT for everybody and doesn’t try to be.

It is exactly the kind of curve ball I wasn’t expecting when predicting other Category 88 nominees. Unforch, if we go back through my checklist. It does meet all the criteria:

How could I overlook the variety series of it all. The SKETCHES of it all. I guess, I assumed ITYSL was a standard 21 minutes. Nope. They tend to run about 15-18 minutes each. I assumed it would go up against SNL and A Black Lady Sketch Show in Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. You know what they say about assuming…

It makes you pit your two comfort comedies against each other in a battle to the death.

I mean…One of my cutest little red flags is that I use an ITYSL sketch as my Hinge profile. S2 E2: The Capital Room.

Would you believe I’ve been on exactly zero Hinge dates???!!

Ya. It pretty much tracks.

Obviously, it is a big big deal that both got nominated and it is (of course) such an honor yadah yadah yadah. I’m not even an Emmy voter. It’s not my choice to make, but I’m still in pieces about it. Doesn’t it feel like there should be separate categories for original programming and show spin-off though?…Especially given the few shows that adhere to the traditional network run times!!? It feels like we (royal) are in Oscar Short Film purgatory.

Instead of ruminating on that I’m just going to give my top 5 ITYSL sketches and top 5 Corrections moments and then continue to mourn the impending duel between two of the VERY FEW THINGS THAT I GENUINELY LIKE.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson Top 5 Sketches

1. The Capital Room

2. Corncob TV

3. Tammy Craps

4. Insider Trading

5. Driver’s Ed

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Corrections Top 5 Bits

1. Chris Angel

2. Wally Two Trees

3. O. Henry/The Shoemaker and the Elves → Defenestration etymology

4. Knitting Nightmare

5. FaceTime with Andy! (for specific impressions: Fine Young Cannibal’s Roland Gift)

Honorable Mention: ☝🏼Shoutout to the big man, my forever #1: Late Night with Half-Ass Ham☝🏼☝🏼

So ya. Maybe I will come up with more to say about this later. For now, I can only hope for an end (peaceful or violent) to the Carpool Karaoke regime.

xx