The 20 Coldest Line Deliveries in TV History

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This issue is about the 100 best late night jokes, weird history, the funniest tweets from yesterday, the coldest line deliveries from TV shows, and more.

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What a century for late night.

Sure, 20th-century comics architected the form, with Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson laying the foundation for the late-night talk show as we now know it. The opening run of topical jokes quickly became the load-bearing beam in the comic blueprint, and America tuned in nightly to see the events of the day summarized in punchlines. But Carson, the face most associated with the early days of late night, had a stranglehold on the business — he so dominated the ratings that no one even dared challenge his rule. Let’s just say that in the 21st century, a single guy riffing on the latest Congressional scandals and screw-ups wouldn’t be the norm.

Nowadays, everybody knows and understands natural phenomena. Or at least, we pretend we do. I doubt I could write out, in plain English, off the top of my head, how lightning is formed, but I understand that it’s generally caused by air pressure or… clouds? Okay, maybe I don’t know how it works, but I at least know it’s not just ghosts or a god’s sneeze or whatever. This is all thanks to smarter, more scientific people than me figuring it out.

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