A late-night comedy writer’s schedule is punishing. They wake early, check the news from overnight, and begin writing jokes before they fry some eggs (and if they’re regularly employed, yes, they can afford the eggs).
By 9am, they will have composed several handfuls of jokes and/or bits that get compiled into a 50-page document that gets sent to the host, who then culls it down to 3-4 pages he’d like to do that night.
Of course, the joke writing doesn’t end there—it continues all day as more news breaks and the show’s production takes shape. If they’re a head writer, they’re tasked with not only writing jokes but reading other people’s jokes and considering the laugh potential.
This is every workday. No matter how tired/sad/angry/alienated from the world they may feel personally, they have one job: be funny.
Danny Ricker has been at this game for his entire adult life, which now is highlighted by being one of the head writers and a co-executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
During his 20 years at the show, Ricker has compiled thousands of jokes. But amidst all this enforced mirth, he also has a home life with a wife and two kids. Why shouldn’t that be fodder for comedy too?
Ricker came to parenting with the usual experience—none. And like many, he found it both confounding and exhausting. Being a comedy writer, he mined his own experiences for a series of observational jokes that he began tagging at the end of his daily submissions to his host.
“It would be ‘this is happening in my house that morning,’” Ricker explains. His host was amused. “Jimmy always liked them.”
More than that, he had an idea for them. “Obviously we’re not going to do material about your kids on our show,” Kimmel told him. “But I think these are really funny. You should try to write a book based on this material.”
Jimmy Kimmel is responsible for virtually everything that has happened to Danny Ricker in his career.
Ricker started out in fifth grade in Los Angeles listening to a young Kimmel doing funny sports reports on the popular morning radio show “Kevin and Bean.” He became a college intern when Kimmel got his late-night show. And eventually he worked his way up from writers’ assistant, to staff writer, to head writer. So why wouldn’t he listen to advice from his forever boss?
The result is being published this week in the form of Wow! You Look Terrible!, a parody of a self-help book about surviving parenting (with some real advice thrown in for good measure).
In addition to writing the book’s forward, Kimmel has booked Ricker as a guest on this Wednesday night’s episode. “The idea of walking out in a suit I bought at Macy’s and talking to Jimmy is the most surreal thing that will ever happen to me,” Ricker says.
Is he nervous? “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waking up three times a night thinking about it,” Ricker admits.
If he had the time, he might consult a real self-help book of the sort that inspired his parody. “I have read hundreds of books like this, for my anxiety, etc,” he explains.
“They identify the thing that’s ruining your life,” Ricker says. “That’s also a great structure for comedy. Come up with a faux problem, then solve it in three steps.”
The problem with parenting, he says, is that it sets you up “to lose your time, your money and your mind.”
Not really, of course. In real life, Ricker speaks freely of the joys of being a parent—and he’s already past the early tribulations: his kids are now 11 and 7. He doesn’t name them in the book, which is now a new problem: they wanted to be stars.
He also made sure to steer clear of the horde of books out there saying “kids are assholes.” Ricker says, “This is not an anti-kid book. It’s about the self-imposed preposterousness of parenting.”
As for the book’s style: it has illustrations, flow-charts, and a new spin on five-minute stories, which Ricker explains were too long for him to get through, so he boiled it down to five-second stories.
As for his own anxiety issues, maybe all that self-help reading has done some good. For example, he professes to be not nearly as concerned about the diminishment of the late-night genre as many others are.
“The game is so different now,” Ricker concedes. But he notes that Kimmel is still devoted to the traditional network show they put on every night. “We’re not writing a show for the Internet,” Ricker quotes Kimmel. “We write a show that is on ABC at 11:30 at night.”
Of course, parts do get watched online. “Our monologues get 2,3,4 million viewers a night on YouTube and other online sites,” he points out. “If there’s big news it can get up to 8 million.” Taking that into account, “I feel like more people are watching the show [than ever],” Ricker says—not less.
One other potential area for anxiety: what about Kimmel’s frequent mentions of possible retirement from the show?
“Oh sure, we get nervous,” Ricker says. “I think he’ll make the right decision when he’s ready to hang it up.”
Ricker’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs tonight, Wednesday April 23rd, 2025. His book, Wow! You Look Terrible! How to Parent Less and Live More, is available at bookstores everywhere.
