Ryan’s big goodbye a Late Late snore SHOW LIKE A DULL WEDDING
THE Late Late Show studio audience always look like they’ve had one too many — or perhaps not enough.
Here at home, I’d prepared six cans of lovely IPA by putting them in the fridge then moving them to the side of the sofa. By 9.30pm, me and the cans were ready.
I’m not sure that I could legally drink cans the last time I watched a Late Late from start to finish. Beer for those aged nine or ten was frowned upon back then.
But — for reasons too dull to go into in detail here but perhaps more interesting than your average Friday night on RTE — I watched Ryan’s longest goodbye.
If I was to get anything out of it — along with the happy little buzz six joyful cans of nice IPA deliver — maybe I’d get... closure.
Sheen
But no. I got none of that. It even took the sheen off the cans. I felt like I’d spend the evening at a wedding of someone I didn’t know, and didn’t particularly like.
The Late Late has raised lots of money for good causes. It championed children and adults with issues. Everyone says it’s worth it to just help one other person. for someone they’ve never met, then share it with the world?
I’ve seen it done for weddings, or just for the sake of it, and always think the same thing. I smile politely but inside I scream: THAT PERSON DOESN’T KNOW YOU.
You’re at a tedious wedding, getting through it via booze, then maybe Ed Sheeran pops up on a screen wishing the bride all the best. Cringe.
You’d have thought the Late Late would be above that sort of thing. It used to be. But there was Paul McCartney wishing Tubs a happy birthday. Christ.
Love-in
The show’s biggest fan — Ryan — let it all flow and lapped it all up.
Sometimes he even cranked it up a few gears.
At one point there was what initially looked like it was going to be a handbrake turn on the love-in. Ryan went off script, “hold on!” he shouted.
I leaned forward in my chair, thinking “oh, off script, this must be big...” But then Ryan directed the camera to the face of a young girl who was sobbing.
She was in tears, Ryan told us, because she thought the toy man was going away forever. He assured the crying child, and any of the rest of us, he wasn’t.
Well, if it helps one other person who thinks the toy man is gone forever then, it’s worth it, isn’t it?
Gay Byrne wouldn’t have done it this way. He was smarter than that. Gay Byrne got rid of the Harley.