Tiffany Haddish and the magic of one hilarious story on late-night TV
THERE are so many ways to go viral with an appearance on late-night television: Have a rap battle with Jimmy Fallon. Help teach Conan O’Brien’s employee how to drive. Spill all the details of your feud with Taylor Swift to James Corden.
Or, in actress Tiffany Haddish’s case, you could go on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and just tell a really, really funny story.
It’s a strategy that is increasingly rare these days, as it takes a lot to get attention on one of the many late-night shows. However, Haddish’s tale of taking Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith on a Groupon swamp tour in New Orleans is so hilarious that the clip took on a life of its own, making its way around Twitter and racking up nearly 650,000 YouTube views in four days.
The viral clip of Haddish comes at the perfect time, as she was on Kimmel’s show last week to promote ‘Girls Trip’, the comedy that just raked in US$30 million at the box office over the weekend - so her appearance just might have inspired even more people to snap up a ticket for opening weekend.
It’s better if you just watch the seven-minute video, but Haddish’s anecdote involves a US$20-per-day rental car, drunk tourists, the revelation that Smith can afford to buy an ecosystem and confirmation that celebrities like Pinkett Smith (one of Haddish’s co-stars in ‘Girls Trip’) don’t use discount deal sites.
“That is an unbelievably great story,” Kimmel gushed at the end of her tale, which had the audience in stitches.
Haddish’s experience is a great lesson for celebrities who feel pressure to resort to carpool karaoke or humiliate themselves in a weird costume on late-night, which is increasingly becoming the norm. Just bring along a funny story that showcases an excellent sense of comic timing - it might be an old school way of doing things, but it’s far more effective than anything else. — WP-Bloomberg