James Corden had “Carpool Karaoke,” which was so popular it even acted as a dating service for some celebs. Kelly Clarkson had “Kellyoke.” David Letterman had a "Top 10" list and “Stupid Pet Tricks.” Jimmy Fallon has more viral segments in his late night repertoire than I could name, though I’m partial to “Classroom Instruments.” And Seth Meyers has “Day Drinking,” what is undoubtedly hilarious but is the red-headed stepchild of viral TV sketches as it also involves him passing out in the hallway of his home sometimes. How did all this get started, anyway?
Well, it turns out Seth Meyers and his brother Josh (whom you may remember from the That ‘70s Show cast) originally wanted to film something dumb and fun together for TV. They latched onto the idea of day drinking, but the original concept was very different, as Seth Meyers recently told the Late Night audience.
So, it was funny, the first time we did day drinking it was me and my brother and it was way more of a travel show idea, where we went around to different bars in Brooklyn. What we realized is it’s boring to show different bars. It’s fun to get drunk.
I mean honestly, I’d probably watch at least an episode of Seth and Josh getting blasted and messing around with one another, but I’m not sure that would have made a five-episode arc, much less a multi-year Late Night bit. Thank goodness smarter minds prevailed. And when I say smarter minds, I mean Retta.
It was actually Retta, the fantastic comedienne and actress, she was like, ‘I want to do it.’ It never occurred to us to do it with guests. But we did it with her and it just sort of kept going. You know, we only do two or three a year because we feel like at some point people are gonna be like, ‘This guy’s too old.’
Retta was famously the very first guest on “Day Drinking,” a segment that kicked off almost a decade ago now. The two memorably sat in cozy chairs and sipped on champagne before Seth Meyers immediately suggested shots. The two later moved to the bar where Retta served as the tender creating concoctions like “The Big Bang Theory,” which was a disgusting mixture of rum, diet coke and Menthos to make it explode.
I’d say they really went for the “treat yo self” mantra, but we all know Retta’s over it.
Retta and Seth Meyers are both from the NBC comedy family, with the late night host kicking things off on SNL and eventually stealing Amy Poehler's cue card guy before getting his own talk show. Meanwhile, Retta broke really big on Parks and Rec. Both probably saw one another around a fair amount at 30 Rock, but I’m glad they ran into one another just in the nick of time to put together this comedic gem, even if Meyers can only manage it like twice a year at this point.
As I said recently, “Day Drinking” is a good (bad) problem to have. It’s led to big names like Kelly Clarkson giving the idea a whirl. Seth himself loved getting to hang with Kristen Stewart during one viral episode. He’ll probably keep doing it as long as the hangovers continue to be worth it.
