On yesterday’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel joined Seth at his desk for the segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” which features set-ups any ol’ straight white cis gay can say, but punchlines that only land if they’re delivered by Black and/or gay women. It’s got a real Seth and Amy: Evolved vibe to it and plenty of legitimately laugh-out-loud one-liners. And! Last night! It featured an article written by Autostraddle’s own poet/icon Dani Janae! The article is Five Outfits for Being the Main Character in a Lesbian Romantic Comedy, and I won’t spoil the visual gag for you, but it did make me cackle.
This whole segment is great, but Dani’s shout-out pounces around the three-minute mark. Our team particularly loved the long pause and eyebrow waggle.
I will now be adopting the phrase “if the flannel fits” into my life as code for “cliches are cliches for a reason!”
Now, if I may fully Heather Hogan it for a second: When I woke up and saw that Dani had made her late night debut, I was so excited for her because she deserves only good things and more praise and fame than even a segment watched by a zillion people could provide. I thought, “Oh, I’ll whip this up into a quick and funny post to celebrate her.” That was like two hours ago. Because when I started writing about Dani, I hopped over to the list of articles she’s published at Autostraddle and lost myself in my favorites all over again. The post she wrote for Animalstraddle day about her tarantula, Delphine. The eulogy she wrote when Delphine passed away. This essay on her gay green couch that I think about at least once a week. Her coming out post about Elvira that went more viral than you can imagine. She contains multitudes. She weaves magic around me every time I devour her words. And I am so proud to see her humor recognized on such an enormous platform.
Also, I took a second to scroll through Seth Meyers’ Getty image history, and that guy wears more denim on denim than a Tegan and Sara concert. I had no idea he was such a lesbian fashion icon! Thanks for giving a platform to your people, Seth!
OMG!!! Yay for Dani. Woo hoo!!!
I’ve stopped watching all late night shows but I genuinely laughed out loud several times during this clip.
Whoaaa!!! This is so cool and awesome!!! Congrats Dani!!!
I was watching it live and thought it was cool they mentioned you guys. Congrat!
Seth Meyers show is consistently the best late night show imo. He lets his writers & crew shine in sketches, and they all genuinely seem to like each other.
Amber Ruffin has her own show now that Jenny Hagel is also a part of, and it’s amazing! They do some great deep dives on racism and have lots of fun musical numbers! Most of the show is avaliable on their YouTube page too.
Opps did not mean to reply to a person instead of the post. This is what happens when it’s 3 am lol.
Love everything about this! And thanks for the link to the eulogy.
Nice, congrats. Hopefully, that got more people to read the article & visit the site in general!
This is so awesome!
Editors – would it be possible as an A+ post to get an update on how this shoutout effected traffic/Google searches? I feel like that would be fascinating!
Agreed!
Epic shoutout!!
It’s true, Dani, your writing is incredible. I always enjoy your pieces!
I LOVE YOU HEATHER THANK YOU 🎈❤️
Is Seth Meyers a bigger lesbian style icon than Bieber when he had ‘the hair’ though?
This was hilarious and delightful. I hope they get to do more of these segments.
Oh I love Jokes Seth Can’t Tell! It’s the only late night segment I reliably watch and always find something to laugh at. Amber and Jenny are so charming, and the three of them play off each other so well. Love that they shouted out Autostraddle!
well every single fucking thing about this just DELIGHTS ME
This is so cool!! I love that segment!
Yay Autostradale shout-out and Dani!
When I was a teenager, I had a wall in my bedroom with photos of actors/comedians/celebrities. They were all either lesbians, played lesbians on TV, or I had a crush on them, except for one exception which was Seth Meyers who I liked from SNL and followed over to Late Night. I love that this segment and joke validated his inclusion on my lesbian wall, lol!