“Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” on Late Night With Seth Meyers is one of the best segments in late-night television in that it a) acknowledges white privilege, b) provides a platform for the show’s marginalized writers, and c) allows us to enjoy funny jokes that we’d have to feel guilty or awkward about laughing at if they came from a white dude. As usual, writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel were on hand to bring the black and lesbian humor, but they also had an assist from the hilarious Tiffany Haddish.
Ruffin and Hagel started out the proceedings with jokes about rhinos, and a recent tech convention for lesbians. When Seth reported the death of the Earth’s last white rhino, Ruffin responded, “Meanwhile, black rhinos die every day, and no one says shit!”
Seth then asks Jenny what’s the most popular thing she saw at the lesbian tech convention, and she points at him and says, “That haircut.”
But the crowd cheered when the two ladies asked for an assist, and Tiffany Haddish came out to join them, which provided one of the best laughs of the segment. After Meyers introduced her, she gestured toward Ruffin and said, “Yes, I am Tiffany! And thank you for being able to tell us apart!”
The whole segment is pretty great, so check it out above. What I did learn in writing this is that Jenny Hagel, in addition to being a Catholic lesbian is also Puerto Rican, which is interesting since she seems to be there specifically for the lesbian humor, and the Latina-ness isn’t mentioned.
I have a suggestion for a new opening: “I’m black. I’m a queer Latina. And we’re both women.” C’mon, Seth! You don’t wanna waste your two-fer! (And that’s a “Joke Teresa Can Tell,” I’m also a queer Puerto Rican)
(via Late Night With Seth Meyers on YouTube, image: screencap)
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