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      Late Night Enjoys Biden’s Encounter With a Trump Fan

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      When President Biden briefly donned a Trump hat, he “gave everyone in QAnon a brain aneurysm at once,” Jimmy Kimmel said.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Hats OffDuring a Wednesday event honoring emergency medical workers from Sept. 11, President Biden shared a lighthearted encounter with a Donald Trump supporter, playfully placing the man’s Trump hat on his own head.“And a new comedy team was born,” Jimmy Kimmel joked on Thursday.“When he put that hat — that Trump hat on his head, he gave everyone in QAnon a brain aneurysm at once.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s sort of a nice moment: two old men from opposite sides, coming together to share a laugh while neither of them run for president.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“I will tell you what, if you ask me, this is what you want from the president of the United States when he meets a voter on the other side. He doesn’t get mad at him, he doesn’t try to hard-sell him, he just shows warmth and a bit of empathy. And they did a remarkable thing you don’t see among two people on opposite sides these days: They had a laugh. And with a simple exchange of hats, they are able to share something much more meaningful: lice. Itchy, disgusting, impossible-to-get-rid-of lice. And that warms my dead heart.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“[imitating Biden] Hey, you take that, Jack. I might not be the best debater, but I can still zing you with the old hat chat.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“But isn’t it nice to see Biden fooling around? Every time I see him now, it’s like when you go on vacation, and the doggy day care texts you a picture of your golden retriever playing fetch. You’re like, ‘Oh, look at that, he’s having fun.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Bad Blood Edition)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Smoking Room’ Is a Brilliant British Office Comedy

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      And yet, compared with the British “Office,” it is a model of restraint.Robert Webb, left, and Jeremy Swift in a scene from the short-lived comedy “The Smoking Room.”Roku ChannelThe two-season comedy “The Smoking Room” (on the Roku Channel) premiered in Britain in 2004, and in some ways it can feel even older: A designated indoor cigarette-smoking lounge at an office? Nary a phone in sight, and only glancing mentions of the internet? Next you’re going to tell me they’re rendering tallow and writing out the Bible by hand.But “Smoking,” written and created by Brian Dooley, has a fascinating timelessness in its format. The show is set in a dingy break room and almost never leaves it — think “oops, all bottle episodes.” It’s a single-camera comedy, but it isn’t a mockumentary; this alone makes its rhythms more like a stage play’s than a sitcom’s. That’s heightened by the fact that there is no score, and many episodes unfold essentially in real time.Its true TV self comes through with the show’s episodic sensibilities, in which the same things always happen. The coffee machine is always on the fritz; Annie (Debbie Chazen) always bums a smoke but never brings one; Heidi (Emma Kennedy) always mentions her drippy husband. Barry (Jeremy Swift) is always doing a shabby job with the crossword puzzle, and Robin (Robert Webb) always knows both the answer to the clue and some other shred of wisdom. Episodes don’t feel repetitive, though; instead, the quirks land as a clever ritual. Every smoke break is different, but every smoke break is the same.There is no major plot to speak of, and almost nothing happens-happens, so “The Smoking Room” relies mostly on dialogue and character. In some ways it is a show carved in relief or composed only of scraps — it has the patter and inconsequence of a cold open but for a half-hour, until the shape of what has not been said is as stark as what has. Some characters never appear at all, their arcs instead fleshed out fully through everyone else’s gossip. Entire love stories play out this way.The obvious comparison here is the British “Office,” but that show feels cacophonous, almost explosive in comparison — a parade versus a snow globe. Plenty of British comedies can be described as being about restraint, but “The Smoking Room” takes this to a funny, brilliant extreme. More

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      ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: Royal Pains

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      This week’s focus was largely on the deepening political drama in Numenor and Khazad-dum, where things have gotten predictably messy.Season 2, Episode 5: ‘Halls of Stone’After last week’s delightful panoply of ents, barrow-wights and stoors (and Tom Bombadil!), this week’s episode of “Rings of Power” shifted away from fantastical action and got back to the slow, hard grind of politics. Because this is a prequel series, it has a fixed endpoint to reach, involving a lot of dangerous jewelry getting distributed to folks who will not end up seeing eye-to-eye on how use it. But before we get there, all of these humans, dwarves and elves still have a lot of talking to do — whether we enjoy hearing it or not.Episodes like this week’s are necessary in a story like this, even if they aren’t as much fun as the ones with angry trees and killer skeletons. The whole point of “Rings of Power” is to flesh out the sketchier summaries of events in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books — all of the deep “this king was succeeded by this other king after this battle” lore — and, in doing so, to give us a fuller sense of all the ancestors to “The Lord of the Rings” heroes and villains. Rather than hearing that long ago there was social unrest in Numenor or Khazad-dum, we get to see firsthand how the conflicts played out, and why.Myself, I like these characters and this world enough to find the predicaments interesting. That said, I do recognize that all of the high-volume speechifying that holds this kind of storytelling together can be a drag sit through. This week, I did find myself occasionally entreating the Valar to tell everyone involved to get on with it already.With that in mind, here are four takeaways and observations from Episode 5:Holy wars in NumenorThe most volatile and complex political drama happening in “Rings of Power” right now is taking place in Numenor, which — as I mentioned in a recap of Episode 3 — hasn’t really gotten enough screen time in this series to make the stakes as clear and urgent as they should be. This episode offers a corrective of sorts, showing just how deep and dangerous the divisions on this island have become.We last left Numenor at a tense moment, when the queen regent Miriel’s coronation was disrupted repeatedly: first by hecklers, then by Earien, who revealed the royal family’s overreliance on a future-telling elfin orb called a palantir. Then it was disrupted again by the portentous arrival of a giant eagle, which the shady opportunist Pharazon co-opted into a divine endorsement for his claim to the throne. The aftermath of all this proves predictably messy.Miriel, who seems to have lost whatever lust for power she may have had before her traumatic adventures in Middle-earth, seems willing to let Pharazon win this one, despite the objections of her trusted adviser (and potential romantic partner) Elendil. She urges him to remain “the calm at the storm’s eye” and asks him to carry on the fight from the inside, saying that “not every battle must be fought to be won.” She says that the palantir has shown them a path for once that doesn’t end in Numenor’s downfall. He is meant to be a leader on that path, inspiring the faithful with his nobility.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jimmy Kimmel Chides Trump for His Debate Performance

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      “More than 67 million Americans watched the debate on television last night, and of that 67 million, the only one who seems to think Trump did a good job is Donald Trump,” Kimmel said.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.67 Million to 1Despite public sentiment suggesting otherwise, Donald Trump said he came out on top after Tuesday’s debate, while also asserting it was rigged against him.On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel said that more than 67 million Americans watched the debate on television last night — “and of that 67 million, the only one who seems to think Trump did a good job is Donald Trump.”“I had a liberal elite day today. I woke up, I ate a big cat for breakfast, then I had a baby, then I had an abortion right after that, and then I went to pick up my kids from their mandatory transgender surgery operations after school. And now, I’m back here spreading Marxist propaganda on TV. That’s how we do it.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“This morning, Trump said the debate was rigged and that ABC should be shut down for fact-checking him, but that he still thought he did great. Then ABC fact-checked him again and said, ‘You did not.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, everyone thought Harris seemed really prepared while Trump was like, ‘My homework was eaten by a dog that was eaten by people in Ohio.’” — JIMMY FALLON“This pet-eating brain worm got into Trump’s skull through JD Vance, who’s been spreading a racist rumor that Haitian immigrants are abducting people’s pets and eating them in Ohio. This is a good time to remind you: please remember to spay or neuter your JD Vance. We don’t want more of that.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It looks like Operation ‘I’m Not Weird’ isn’t going well.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Childless Cat Lady Edition)“Last night, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took to the debate stage to make their cases to Taylor Alison Swift and whoever else happened to be watching.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“Trump was like, ‘See? She’s eating her cat.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump this morning responded to the Taylor Swift endorsement and said, ‘Not a fan.’ But I have some bad news: his granddaughter, Arabella, Ivanka’s daughter, two months ago had a Taylor Swift cake for her birthday. So eat that, Grandpa.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Really, Donald? You prefer Brittany Mahomes? What’s your top five Brittany Mahomes songs? Is this really his angle? ‘Well, I don’t care, Taylor, because I like your boyfriend’s co-worker’s wife better.” — JORDAN KLEPPERThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Late Night” writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel returned for another “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment on Wednesday.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightThe “Agatha All Along” star Sasheer Zamata will appear on Thursday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This OutThe documentary “Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion,” streaming on Max, turns a sharp eye to the Gen Z fashion brand Brandy Melville.Courtesy of HBOTrue crime stories about brands like Brandy Melville and Lululemon explore the dark side of trendy clothing. More

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      In the Presidential Debate, Kamala Harris Produced the Show She Wanted

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      In Tuesday’s debate, the vice president made herself the studio audience for a cringe comedy starring her opponent.At the ABC presidential debate, Kamala Harris had a programming challenge. Working against an experienced reality-TV professional, a savant of live broadcasts, she had to pull off a successful reboot of Democrats’ least-favorite TV show of the 2024 season: the June debate that saw the self-immolation of President Biden.There were some hurdles. The same rules in place on CNN in June still held. There was no studio audience, and each candidate’s microphone would be turned off when the other was speaking. When Mr. Biden was still running, these guardrails were meant to avoid the dumpster fire of cross-talk and shouting that marked the first 2020 debate. But that would frustrate Ms. Harris’s campaign goal, which was to encourage Mr. Trump to be his own worst enemy.So she, and whoever prepared her for Tuesday’s showdown, did what prime-time producers have done since TV’s early days: They worked within the constraints of the medium to produce the show they wanted.If Mr. Trump could not bluster and shout over her, she would need to get him to melt down on his own time. If he could not stalk her onstage, as he did with Hillary Clinton in 2016, she would have to use the staging and the split-screen to create a dominance contest on her own terms.It began before the first question was asked. Ms. Harris crossed the stage toward Mr. Trump and offered her hand. The handshake was a small exercise of control, designed to be seen by a prime-time audience: She was the active party, initiating the encounter, and he the reactive one, accepting. She introduced herself — “Kamala Harris” — as if to anticipate his habit of mispronouncing her first name. Visually, she made herself the focus of attention, the protagonist of the drama.Then she set about making Mr. Trump into the antagonist she wanted, needling and baiting him, pulling his levers and pushing his buttons.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Late Night Hosts Declare Harris the Winner in the Debate

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      Stephen Colbert said that the vice president needed to “rattle Trump’s cage. And now that it is over, they are still looking for pieces of his cage in low orbit.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Best in ShowOn Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met for their only scheduled debate before the election. Three of the five late-night shows went live after it ended, with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart offering their takes.Colbert said that Harris “came out swinging,” looking to “rattle Trump’s cage.”“And now that it is over, they are still looking for pieces of his cage in low orbit.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary. It was beautiful. By the end of the debate, the meat was falling off the bone.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Usually when Donald Trump gets a spanking like this from a woman, it’s with a Forbes magazine. Kamala was pushing his buttons like a 12-year-old playing Fortnite.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He was so nonsensical that she looked at him the way a parent looks at a kid giving a presentation on why they should be allowed to get a pet tiger.” — STEPHEN COLBERTOn “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart called out Trump for his answer to a question about his involvement in the Jan. 6. insurrection.“You spent two months riling up your base that our country had literally been stolen from them through fraudulent means, that you could never even get a whiff of in a court of law, and let — let yourself just abuse them. You pressed on. You abused their trust. You showed up for a speech? You [expletive] tweeted ‘Join me on Jan. 6. It will be wild.’ But suddenly now: ‘I was just a hired magician to do the bar mitzvah! I didn’t do anything. I showed up with a hat and a rabbit and then the whole party went out of control!’” — JON STEWART“And this is it, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t know if this debate is going to change anything. I really don’t. People are awfully set in the manner that they view these proceedings. What I think is a home-run answer for one candidate, someone else views as a dodge or a lie or any of those other things. In some ways, it doesn’t matter what they say anymore, but one thing will always be true, and it is the quality of the former president I respect the least: Whenever he is cornered and forced to face even the smallest of consequences for his own mendacity and scheming, he reverts to the greatest refuge of scoundrels. As Shaggy would say, ‘It wasn’t me!’” — JON STEWART“[imitating Trump] OK, but you can’t believe a thing I say. I’m crazy! Everybody knows that! I’m the Hannibal Lecter whale guy. Immigrants are taking our cats and giving them operations to turn them into dogs and then eating the dogs. Whale!” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Lock Up Your Dogs Edition)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      SNL’s Cast for the 50th Season Includes Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline

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      Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline will be the show’s new faces in its landmark season.The cast for Season 50 of the NBC sketch comedy series “Saturday Night Live” is in place, with the up-and-coming comedians Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline joining as featured players, the network announced on Tuesday. The new season is scheduled to premiere on Sept. 28.Chloe Troast, who joined “S.N.L.” as a featured player last season, was not asked to return, she said in an Instagram post on Monday.“Unfortunately I was not asked back to ‘S.N.L.’ this season,” Troast wrote. “I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn’t in the cards.”Padilla, like many “S.N.L.” alumni before her — including Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Phil Hartman — comes from the Los Angeles improv and sketch comedy troupe the Groundlings. She also appeared this year in a final-season episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and in an episode of the NBC revival of “Night Court.”Chloe Troast, pictured playing Mama Cass in 2023, will not be returning to “S.N.L.”Will Heath/NBCWakim, a Lebanese American comedian who grew up mostly in Indiana, made his late-night stand-up debut in 2022 on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” That year, he was named the New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal and has opened for the comics Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser, Hasan Minhaj and Neal Brennan.Wickline is probably most recognizable from TikTok, where she has nearly a million followers and contributes regularly to “Stapleview,” a live TikTok comedy show.Also returning are the main cast members Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang. The former featured players Marcello Hernández, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker — all of whom joined “S.N.L.” for its 48th season — will move up the ranks to the main cast.In August, Punkie Johnson, who had been a part of “S.N.L.” since 2020, confirmed that she would not return for the coming season. Among the characters Johnson played was Vice President Kamala Harris. Maya Rudolph, an “S.N.L.” cast member from 2000 to 2007 who has returned to play Harris 10 times through 2021, seems poised to reprise the role as Harris vies for the White House as the Democratic candidate.Molly Kearney, the show’s first nonbinary cast member, announced in August that they would not be returning after two seasons with the program. “It was such a dream come true,” Kearney wrote in an Instagram post. “So incredibly grateful for this period in my life.” More

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      ‘Emily In Paris’ Goes on a Roman Holiday

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      The frothy Netflix show frustrated Parisians with its portrait of their city. Now its heroine is heading to Rome — and the showrunner doesn’t care if residents there feel the same way.“Emily in Paris,” the hit Netflix series about a young American living a life of romance and luxury in France, has ignited a blaze of indignation since it premiered in late 2020.Emily’s clumsy grasp of the native tongue, brash designer clothes and exaggerated encounters with dashing chefs and flamboyant artists left some Parisians irate and American expatriates embarrassed, even as it became one of Netflix’s most popular comedies.Now in its fourth season — split into two installments, with the second arriving Thursday — the show continues to both charm and vex with its sunny vision of what the French newspaper Liberation has called “Disneyland Paris.”But in the new batch of episodes, Emily (Lily Collins) departs Paris and heads to Rome. Invited by her new Italian love interest Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini), she zooms around on his scooter, offering a picture-postcard view of the Eternal City with stops at touristic hallmarks like the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and the Spanish Steps. As he entices Emily to move on to a new European capital, Marcello makes a pitch that doubles as the season’s mandate: “Forget about crepes. We’ll be eating pizza.”Darren Star, the creator and showrunner of “Emily in Paris,” said that Emily “was becoming very comfortable in Paris. I wanted to throw her into some unfamiliar waters.” He added that “we were able to live Emily’s life in Paris, and now we’re going to do the same thing in Rome.”Lily Collins as Emily, exploring her new surroundings.Giulia Parmigiani/NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More