‘Late Night’ Writer Jenny Hagel: ‘Jokes Seth Can’t Tell’ and ‘Day Drinking’
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ writer Jenny Hagel has spent the entirety of Donald Trump’s political career writing and telling jokes that ride a precarious line between funny and offensive. But the difference between Hagel and Trump’s anti-woke comic crowd is that she only ever targets her own demographic. In this episode, Hagel breaks down her and Amber Ruffin’s long-running “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment, including how they got Hillary Clinton to join in after losing the 2016 election and why they are able to get away with outrageous punchlines that could get people with the wrong intentions canceled. She also discusses how ‘Late Night’ has changed during the second Trump term, reveals some secrets behind Seth Meyers’ popular “Day Drinking” bit, shares her reaction to NBC’s decision to kill ‘The Amber Ruffin Show,’ and teases her live comedy show ‘Jenny Hagel Gives Advice’ in which she bolds tells audience members how to live their lives.
Get tickets to see ‘Jenny Hagel Gives Advice’ live
Follow Jenny Hagel on Instagram @jennyhagel
Follow Matt Wilstein on Bluesky @mattwilstein
Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod
Highlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is The Last Laugh. |
| 0:05.4 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and today on the show I'm thrilled to have as my guest a very funny comedian who has been writing for late night with Seth Myers for nearly a decade now, and along with previous Last Laugh guest Amber Ruffin is responsible for one of my favorite segments on |
| 0:22.1 | that show, Jokes Seth Can't Tell. You can also catch her new live comedy show, Jenny Hegel gives |
| 0:28.5 | advice later this month at Joe's Pub in New York. Jenny Hagel, welcome to The Last Laugh. |
| 0:35.0 | Thank you for having me. Hi. Yeah, it's so great to have you here. |
| 0:38.3 | I feel like I'm catching you in the middle of a long late night break. |
| 0:41.5 | Is that right? |
| 0:42.3 | That's right. |
| 0:43.0 | Yeah, we take little breaks in the summer, which I think we all need because it's hard to stare directly at the news for too long. |
| 0:48.5 | I was looking and, I mean, you've been at the show at late night since 2016, which means you're coming up on next year will be |
| 0:56.1 | your 10-year anniversary at the show, which is kind of insane. I mean, did you think when you |
| 1:00.8 | took that job that you would be there for a decade? No, I thought I would be fired immediately. |
| 1:06.8 | I remember my first week at work, the woman who used to run our hair and makeup and wig department |
| 1:12.9 | came to my desk. And, you know, I was just hired as a writer. And she said, hey, when you have a |
| 1:17.0 | moment, come by hair and makeup so I can measure your head for when we make you wigs for when you're |
| 1:23.5 | on the show. And I thought, oh, that's so lovely of her, but I'll never be on the show. |
| 1:27.8 | Like, I'll do it because she asked me to, |
| 1:29.1 | but obviously I will never be on the show. |
| 1:31.2 | And I think two weeks later, I was on the show, |
| 1:34.2 | Beyonce's album Lemonade dropped. |
| 1:36.5 | You know, like, there was a thing where she dropped, |
| 1:37.6 | like, all those videos in the middle of the night. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Daily Beast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Daily Beast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.