Strike Force 13
- Jul 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 17
The other month, I posted a video here of Stephen Colbert having his Strike Force 5 partners on as guests for one of his final shows. Those are the five late night hosts (Colbert, along with Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon) who got together for 12 podcasts during the last Writers Guild strike. The podcasts were wildly entertaining and a joy, as the clearly close-friendship between competitors and seeing these comedians ragging on one another burst out each week. And their appearance on his late night now for a sort of joint-interview was a great treat.
As it happens, they got together one more time for a final Strike Force 5, as a sort of farewell to Stephen Colbert. It wasn’t done exactly the same – rather than each at home and audio only, this was the five guys sitting at a conference table and all on video. It starts off a bit rambling, but eventually kicks with the same spirit and humor.
But it’s at its best (for me) when they bring back their most famous and popular episode. Episode 5. That was when Jimmy Fallon was the week’s host, and decided to do a “Newlywed Show”-type game and contacted each of the others’ wives beforehand to ask them questions that their husband’s would then have to match. But he screwed it up so badly, that they mercilessly shredded him throughout the episode – and for the rest of the podcasts, including “Part 2” of the game because Fallon hadn’t gotten to all his questions. And even on their joint-Colbert appearance. And here, when they insisting on Fallon again contacting the wives. This goes better, but there are still plenty enough mess-ups. It starts around the 35:00 mark.
Slight digression, but it’s related.
When tracking this down, I found a video of Seth Meyers doing a Q&A with his audience, and he’s asked his favorite Strike Force 5 episode, and without literally a second of hesitation, says it was that “Episode 5” that Jimmy Fallon hosted. And he explains why. Here’s that minute clip –
(By the way, if you want hear that "Strike Force Wives" episode -- and it is really wonderfully funny -- my article about it and a link is here.)
But the reason I bring it up is that in the User Comments on YouTube, someone (going by the name “Moorebid_) trying to be oh-so All Knowing tries to come to Fallon’s defense and says, “
“To be fair to Fallon, there was a writer's strike going at the time, so he wasn't allowed to write his questions down; the fact that he wrote anything at all (even something as simple as "pet name?") technically makes him a scab.”
I never respond to User Comments online. (I’ve only done so three times, I think, and those only because I was directly involved in some way – once was when a friend was wrongly trashed – and what was said was completely wrong.) And I so badly wanted to respond there, because the All-Knowing person was oh-so completely wrong. But I put aside my anxiousness to jump in and left it without replying. But that was there, and this is here, so I can post here what I wanted to say there –
“As a member of the Writers Guild who was on strike, this comment is completely wrong. The Writers Guild was on strike against companies who are signatories to the Minimum Basic Agreement. Non-fiction podcasts, like Strike Force 5 with people just sitting around talking to one another, are not covered by the MBA. Nor is writing emails to the wives of friends. Not only was Jimmy Fallon not "technically” a scab, he was nor a scab in any way, shape or form. He was absolutely, 100% allowed to write his questions down for the podcast.”
Good, I got that out of my system. And now on to the final Strike Force 5 podcast. Unless they decide to do another
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