When one thinks of the extracurricular activities of late-night stars, the first thing that comes to mind is a club with a 6X6 stage, a mic, fewer than ten tables, some annoying hecklers, and a faux brick wall as backdrop.
After all, the comedy club is the natural habitat of funny people, isn’t it?
But what about the other habitat heavily populated with late-night players?
Game boards, questions, and bonus rounds, oh my. If you buzzed in with “game shows,” you win the money.
Game shows and late-night stars? Yes, really. In fact, over the space of a recent week, three current Saturday Night Live cast members premiered new TV game show projects:
First up: Long-time cast member Mikey Day launched a new holiday edition of Is It Cake? That’s the one where celebrity judges try to identify cakes that look like leather chairs and beer steins, while bakers, who are the actual contestants, whip up their own “hyper-realistic” cakes that are also indistinguishable from everyday objects, like dart boards and roller skates.
Then there’s Sarah Sherman, known for playing some memorably original characters on SNL, kicking off her own moonlighting venture. It’s on Max, and it’s a game show that pits human beings in obstacle-course races against hamsters.
Granted, that sounds like a sketch Sherman would be in on SNL. Kenan Thompson would be the host, and Sherman would be dressed as one of the hamsters.
But nope, it’s a real show. It’s called Human vs Hamster and Sherman is herself, dressed in her own distinctive, color-colliding style. But she is indeed the host, who helps call the action as teams made up of teachers and nurses and other respectable professionals, navigate elaborate sets built to be supersized versions of tracks hamsters are taught to race though. And if they beat the athletically gifted rodent they’re matched against, they can win maybe a couple of thousand bucks.
If that still sounds more like a comic parody of a traditional game show than the real thing, fire up Prime Video and check out Colin Jost, who not only has been co-anchor of “Weekend Update” on SNL for more than a decade, but has also served as the show’s head writer. He’s now squeezing a different gig into his down time, hosting an offshoot of probably the most successful traditional game show in television history, Jeopardy!
Jost’s version is different, though. It’s Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which, instead of seeking answers with quotes from Shakespeare like “hoist with his own petard,” asks teams of contestants to complete rap lyrics like “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, there’s vomit on his sweater already.”
Obvious question: are these shows meant to be funny? The answer seems to be: only sort of. Day cracks cake-based jokes now and then and does some physical comedy with a murder-weapon style carving knife. Sherman doesn’t have to do much wisecracking because someone else is on screen making a desperate effort to nose out a hamster.
Jost plays his job pretty straight, though he does make witty remarks when the contestants show a little spunk in their answers.
Fans of SNL who run into these shows unexpectedly might be a bit shocked and wonder what is becoming of late-night comedy that its stars are hosting game shows.
But any shock is both misplaced and disconnected from late-night history. It’s worth asking: where else would a producer go to find a good host for a show about bakery items in disguise? A comedy performer is a pretty sensible choice.
Also, these are folks accustomed to being thrust into bizarre situations live on television. Being a TV host type goes with the territory on “Update.” (To the show’s credit it lays off the obvious cheap joke. “Now here’s your host; Colin Jost!”)
More telling here is the history. The links between late night and game shows are long and unquestionably significant. Why did Johnny Carson get The Tonight Show? Because he was really funny hosting a game show called Who Do You Trust?
Merv Griffin was better known for owning game shows, but his big break happened during the four years he was hosting a show called Play Your Hunch. Jack Paar, then the Tonight star, accidentally walked onto the game show’s set during one live show and Griffin interviewed him.
In 1989, CBS, desperate to compete with Carson, decided, deludedly, that the answer was a hugely successful game show host. The Pat Sajak Show lasted less than four months.
More recently, the host of Win Ben Stein’s Money turned that TV contest into a witty comedy showcase and built off that success, beginning a late-night show called Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The connection is so natural that late-night hosts have moved on to hosting game shows after leaving late night. Craig Ferguson hosted a show called Celebrity Name Game. Even the one-time late-night leader, Jay Leno, returned to TV in a remake of You Bet Your Life, playing the Groucho role.
And one current host, Jimmy Fallon, an avowed game lover, brought back a true classic, Password, though he doesn’t host, he plays the game instead. Jimmy Kimmel joined to compete against him in one episode, which pushed a few extra buttons on the late-night connection.
The introduction of current SNL players to the game world is a new wrinkle, but again not really a surprising one. Once you’ve been on a stage playing a host or contestant on Black Jeopardy or Meet Your Second Wife at least you know you won’t break watching a bald guy in his 40’s try to keep up with a hamster.
so we’re just ignoring Jay Pharoah being a game show host too.