I remember anecdotes of the early episodes not having an applause sign but the audience breaking out in chants of "Stephen Stephen Stephen!" just like on The Colbert Report despite not being a character like on there.

But then when Chris Licht (currently at CNN) was hired as showrunner in 2016 to revamp the show, it appears he got the applause sign installed.

Ever since then, applause seems to come on for many jokes, more low-key ones, ones that are meant to be quick, or aren't that funny.

Pre covid, he would often joke "big fans of X" here at applause for jokes where he simply mentions the name of a politician or strange group or item.

But especially since returning to the Ed Sullivan Theatre after lockdown, Stephen has seemingly grown increasingly frustrated with the applause sign or whoever is operating it, going "really?!" at least once or twice every time, and looking over at Louis Cato in mock disbelief at the audience.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who has noticed this. It seems as if there is some sort of lack of communication between the writers' room and the actual stage crew at the very least.

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travio t1_jabic9y wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:58 AM

Craig Ferguson hated his cue cards. He always threw them away.

mmurry t1_jabgipt wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:38 AM

Jimmy Kimmel hated Jay Leno for what he did to Conan.

your_mind_aches OP t1_jabhrkv wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:52 AM

I was gonna make a joke about that in my post but decided against it haha

WeDriftEternal t1_jabgy02 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:43 AM

Norm, host of Weekend Update and OJ

anasui1 t1_jacrm5n wrote on February 28, 2023 at 2:39 PM

I remember David Letterman absolutely despising Paris Hilton to the point of telling her she's the reason the world hates Americans. Damn that interview was brutal, he was unironically mean

Samurai_Meisters t1_jac6wgp wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:28 AM

Adam Carolla had a late night show that I used to watch. It started with a studio audience, but at some point he got rid of them. So he'd tell a joke and it would be dead silent, except every once in a while he'd tell a good one and you could hear one guy laughing that got picked up by the mic.

Doc_coletti t1_jaccok3 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 12:34 PM

Not the host, but Phil Giroux, the guy drinking coffee in the window on the Tom Green Show, really hates copper.