James Acaster Jokingly Accuses Seth Meyers of Stealing Other Comics’ Jokes

James Acaster is criminally underknown here in the U.S., though he boasts a cadre of devoted fans back in Britain. There, he's known for comedy based in a punk ethos and a complete inability to follow written directions. He’s on a press tour at the moment for his new HBO special, Hecklers Welcome, which brought him to Seth Meyers’ side on a recent episode of Late Night. 

There, I think it’s this exact punk stubbornness and the freedom that his comparatively lower profile affords (sorry, James) that makes him an excellent guest. It gives him a little more freedom to be genuinely funny in a borderline antagonistic way, the way the best Letterman guests were. I’m sure those pranks on set were hilarious in the moment, but watching yet another movie star sit there, legs crossed in a specific way that has to be part of PR training? An absolute vacuum of interest. Send them to Jimmy Fallon for that.

And so, Acaster eschewed the platitudes of talking about how fun his special was, and how blessed he is to be able to do this, instead bringing a classic British export to the stage: a bit of banter. Specifically, one of the funniest forms of torment you can inflict on a friend — making up embarrassing lies to them, and then doubling down. Being that Acaster is competing with Meyers for the stand-up Emmy, he took his chance to spread some nasty rumors about the source of Meyers’ material.

Meyers, as a good late-night host does, lobbed Acaster a softball segue into talking about their specials, and Acaster, with glee, drilled that floater directly back into his nuts. He launched into a (to be clear, fictitious) story about Meyers trying to comfort his Emmy jitters by telling him, “I didn’t even write any of my own material. You said, ‘I stole it from newer comics.’” 

Then, as Meyers' face morphed into the exact sort of seething appreciation of a good bit that the best banter inspires, he went on to say that Meyers not only lifted the material, but upon bombing with others’ bits, went back to the clubs and stole the laughter from the original comics as well, piping it into the special in post.

Just to be clear, I recently heard some of Meyers’ (own) stand-up material, and it was solid. It’s a testament to Acaster’s charisma that he can come in and sow the kind of discord he must know will result in articles like this without it feeling antagonistic, and a testament to Meyers’ good nature to take it in stride. 

To be honest, the whole exchange is the sort of thing it feels like late night’s been missing for a good while.