Billie Lourd’s Australian Accent Won Late Night This Week

Jimmy Kimmel Live! went to Brooklyn for its homecoming week. The mayor and two-fifths of the Strike Force Five showed up as well as Robert De Niro as Brendan Carr, who ran through all the greatest hits of Kimmel’s insults for Trump. I’d forgotten about “President Trump has touched more women than the music of Adele.” Later that same night, Billy Crystal shared a fun story about De Niro. It gave the night a sense of continuity that is often missing from late night nowadays. They even got Dancing With the Stars dark horse Guillermo Rodriguez. What a get!

Beyond Brooklyn, everyone got to have some fun with Senator Eric Schmitt and his colossal fail at the Senate Judiciary Committee. My favorite breakdowns came from Seth Meyers, purely for his accent work. Meyers brought back his Graham family impression, now pretending to be Lindsey’s sister, Darline. Meemaw anecdotes are back, baby! Speaking of accents, Jon Stewart had a good bayou rumble on Monday, mocking the folksy nonsense that spews out of Oxford alum John Kennedy. As someone from the part of the Midwest that is actually the South, I should be mad at this twang disparagement from these yankees. But the corn pone is just too tasty. Here’s who else got a hearty hyuck this week in late night.

5. 
Shirtless Scrabble on The Tonight Show

Who knew you could make so many words with the letters in “Rams”? On a special Sunday post-football episode of The Tonight Show, some rammy Rams fans got their yell on. This is such a small detail, but I love when you see the emergency exit doors during a sketch. I don’t think a show has made use of that nook in a studio since Conan’s era of Late Night. This was such a stupid bit (complimentary), and it lasted just long enough. Get in, get your boobs out, scream, get out. That’s the motto.

4. 
The Daily Show Says RIP to All Americans

Just a quality two-hander sketch in the middle of this topical comedy show. Michael Kosta tried to do an “In Memoriam” for every single American who has ever died, exasperating Jordan Klepper to no end. This sketch nears the Platonic ideal of the form, the Ur-sketch, as it were. Kosta is the strange person, Klepper the voice of reason, and the whole thing heightens at a perfect pace. Kosta’s terrible singing is the off-key icing on the cake. 

3. 
Ms. Pat Shares Her Vacation Pics on Late Night

Every time Ms. Pat is on Late Night, it’s a moment. This time, her outfit was particularly fierce, and Meyers’s delight in her was extra heightened. Ms. Pat wove stand-up material in between promo for her seemingly endless projects and insults for her devoted husband. Everyone was firing on all cylinders here.

2. 
Matt Damon Lands a Perfect ‘Your Mom’ Joke on Kimmel

To borrow from Adults, can I ask for a mindwipe? I’m kind of sick of the Jimmy Kimmel–Matt Damon faux-beef. Some bits need to die, or at least rest the game for a while. But Damon’s appearance on the first of Kimmel’s Brooklyn shows won me over — not for the feigned animosity, but for the gorgeous “ya mama” joke that closed the scene. Damon was in the audience with Kimmel’s mother and sistser, who chose to leave with the Odyssey star when he was ejected. “You can keep me off the show,” he said as he was being escorted off the premises, “but you can’t keep me out of your mom.” The Pharcyde would be proud.

1. 
‘You Are Not Supposed to Call Your Friends Out on the Microphaurn!’

Billie Lourd was in rare form on Thursday night’s WWHL. First, her quick quips during a Q&A segment felt as sharp and funny as her mom. It was perfect balance of actually opening up and throwing off one-liners to evade ever being Truly Known. Then she did “Clubhouse Playhouse” as RHOA’s Porsha Williams, but with an Australian accent. It’s important to make strong choices as an actor, and Lourd’s choice was as strong as one of those freakishly buff kangaroos. It even made Leslie Grossman break. Lourd was luminous the whole night.