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!
