Beyond the Music Celebrity: Talk-Show Hosts Provide Personalized Relief Experience

April 14, 2020 Jessica Sias, Staff Writer, Sonoma State Star Newspaper

Stand-up comedians and talk-shows are a popular way to keep the crowd entertained, but, especially in wake of the virus, the laughs are perhaps needed now more than ever. 

Whether students have found themselves in the audience of talk-shows or at a stand-up comedian’s show, it is well evident that the show knows how to get the crowd going. But, with COVID-19 at play, it is essentially, momentarily impossible to fill up those seats because of quarantining happening all over the nation.

Many shows are a part of the nation’s live late-night shows that aren’t filled with news. It is a way for many viewers to get a break from real-world news, instead replacing it with comedy and a light-hearted distraction from what is happening with COVID-19 and how it has filled many homes with stress and fear. 

Shows planned to go on as they usually would without having a live audience. The new era of television that is “remote broadcast” took on a deeper meaning. All of the mainstream social media outlets make it accessible for viewers around the world to be able to stay and interact with these talk-show hosts at the tip of their fingers. 

Talk-show hosts dressed casually during recent side-by-side skype conversations. Not only have they had casual interactions with their viewers, but they are recycling popular videos and even having more of a personal interaction with their participating viewers. 

“Kimmel called for a #formalfriday, to encourage dressing up among the universally shut-in, or even putting on clothes.‘For me, it’ll be the first time I’ve worn pants this week,’ Kimmel said. Viewers were asked to send in videos. Wednesday, Fallon called for submissions in response to the hashtag #quarantineinsixwords, and read some out,” said Robert LLoyd, television critic of the L.A. Times.

Lloyd continued, outlining Kimmel’s responses that read: “Thursday: ‘Fine you can paint daddy’s nails,’ as well as ‘Expelled my kid from homeschool’ and ‘Flattening the curve, fattening my curves,’” viewers said.

Lacking a live audience that a talk-show host usually interacts with makes the community online feel more connected to the content and sentiments that the hosts and figures alike have started to produce. 

There have been many comedians that are working together to assess emergency relief funds and putting out creative content for their audience.  

“Most comedians I know are struggling with the fact we don’t have that outlet anymore, along with what so many others here—and all over the world—are dealing with right now, the impact of not being able to work,” said comedian Sarah Colonna. 

“When you’re panicking about your future every 10 minutes, it can be hard to write a joke,” she said. 

Comedians like Maria Bamford are using Zoom all the while, wherein Bamford performs new material for her viewers, with admission only costing $5.  From this alone, she is equipped with the ability to donate the money to a local food bank.

“Marc Maron, Ray Romano, Whitney Cummings, Adam Sandler, Nikki Glaser and Patton Oswalt were just a few who offered up some humor and worked out ideas on ‘Comedy Gives Back COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund,’ which was available to stream on social media and Comedy Central’s YouTube channel for those of us at home,” said CNN’s Marianne Garvey. 

Clearly, finding alternative means to entertain fans while simultaneously helping the community has become a priority for many entertainers around the world—as it hopefully continues.