Monologue
What Makes America Laugh Before Bed
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- US$4.99
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"Jon Macks is one of the greatest comedy writers of all time."—Chris Rock
A hilarious, revealing look behind the history and culture of American late-night TV, by a longtime comedy writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Ever since Johnny Carson first popularized the late-night talk show in 1962 with The Tonight Show, the eleven p.m. to two a.m. comedy time slot on network television has remained an indelible part of our national culture. More than six popular late-night shows air every night of the week, and with recent major shake-ups in the industry, late-night television has never been more relevant to our public consciousness than it is today. Jon Macks, a veteran writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, takes us behind the scenes of this world for an in-depth, colorful look at what really makes these hosts the arbiters of public opinion.
From the opening monologue—what’s funny, what’s dangerous, what’s untouchable—to the best vs. worst guests, Macks covers the landscape of late-night comedy and punctuates the narrative with hysterical personal anecdotes, shining the spotlight on some of the very best late night jokes, and drawing from more than half a million of his own jokes written over the span of twenty years. With an insider’s expertise and a laugh-out-loud voice, Macks explains how late-night TV redefines the news and events of any given day, reshapes public opinion, and even creates our national zeitgeist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macks, a veteran writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, explores the history of late-night comedy shows in America and the different styles of hosts and jokes that continue to draw audiences. He argues that late-night comedy provides a way to make sense of the ever-increasing news-media overload. He devotes most of the coverage to his former employer Jay Leno, but manages to draw out interesting views on many of the most popular hosts, including Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Jimmy Fallon. Reader Heller rises to the task of narrating a book that is about comedy and contains its fair share of jokes, derived from Mack and the various hosts. When it's clear who is telling the joke, Heller provides a hint of impersonation, just to give the listener the flavor of the speaker. In general, Heller has the comic timing down, which improves the laughs in this book, but he still must deal with a good deal of jokes, often one-liners, that themselves feel a bit flat. A Penguin/Blue Rider hardcover.
