Seth Meyers walked away from Wednesday’s Late Night taping with his wallet a little lighter, and it was partly Colin Jost’s fault.
“Real quick, it’s Spring Break, so my son Axel is here,” Meyers told the crowd at the tail-end of his recurring segment, “A Closer Look.”
“He basically bullied me into giving him a dollar every time I cursed in ‘A Closer Look,’” the host revealed.
Having agreed to a deal with no upside, one would think Meyers might have cut down on his cussing for the night. Then again, an empty swear jar is a tall order for a late-night host when the recent news cycle includes an ill-conceived Iran combat plan, a confounding hand gesture by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and President Donald Trump’s decision to calm down understaffed, overwhelmed airports with… ICE agents.
In the end, though, it was paper clips and gas prices that dinged Meyers’ billfold.
First up, Trump’s recent nonsensical tangent about the paper clip being “discovered” 182 years ago mystified Meyers.
“Sir, what exactly the hell are you talking about?” Meyers asked before addressing the accuracy of Trump’s statement. “Of f*cking course it wasn’t 182 years ago! He’s just pulling numbers out of his ass like an ICE agent doing a cavity search at the airport!”
Meyers trotted out a couple more F-bombs while riffing on “f*cking expensive” gas prices. But a decision to poke fun at former Saturday Night Live colleague Colin Jost didn’t help him, either. After Meyers made a self-deprecating riff about Late Night’s lack of Emmy Awards, he noted that even SNL didn’t start collecting Emmys in earnest until he left.
“I hope Colin Jost brings all his Emmys with him the next time he goes bobsledding,” Meyers snarked before playing a clip with which he has become smitten, of a terrified Jost bobsledding while covering the Winter Olympics, yelling “Oh sh*t!”
Meyers rolled the clip a second time to end “A Closer Look” with its traditional callback.
Meanwhile, Axel Meyers had been waiting in the wings keeping score. While only seven instances were foul enough to bleep for broadcast, the 7-year-old flagged 12 swear words—apparently counting not just his dad’s ten curses, but also the two from Jost’s bobsledding misadventure.
“How much? Twelve bucks?!” Meyers asked Axel to close the segment. “I don’t think we can afford it.”
Meyers’ son proudly held up a piece of paper as proof, having kept a running tally throughout the segment.
The surprise cameo wasn’t the first time Axel appeared on his dad’s late-night show. In November, the host surprised his kids with their late-night interview debut, welcoming Axel along with son Ashe and daughter Adelaide as part of his annual family-oriented Thanksgiving episode.
