Force Majeure

As of the day I post this, the strike by the Writers Guild of America has been going on for over three and a half months. (The SAG-AFTRA strike of actors began about two months later.) My sympathies are completely with the strikers, who are seeking to secure livable wages and key protections against corporate greed. But until an agreement is reached with the studios, plenty of people who were not making "the big bucks" before will continue to go with nothing at all.

The very first entertainment to show the effects of the strike were talk shows. Because they're written, filmed, edited, and broadcast all in the same day (or week), the strike instantly put those shows out of business. Five hosts of those shows, who essentially haven't been able to do their regular job, have now united to do something else.

Strike Force Five is a new limited-run podcast with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. The five late night hosts had been talking with each other already about strike-related issues (such as their out-of-work staffs), and decided to spin their conversations into a podcast -- from which any sponsorship revenue would be used to pay those staffs.

There's no additional gimmick here; they're just gathering to talk, and recording the conversation for an audience. But based on just the one episode so far, it's going to be hilarious. The first episode covered everything from more than one of them being offered (and turning down) the same "co-hosting" gig before hitting it big, to which deposed dictator has a pair of pants in Colbert's mom's attic. It's just a wild, meandering talk with five funny people all working to one-up each other and keep their comedy muscles limber during this period of inactivity.

They say their plan is to run the podcast for at least 12 weeks -- and I imagine the hope is that it doesn't need to run any longer. For however long it lasts, though, I expect to enjoy the weekly present being dropped into my feed. And while I don't feel like I should review it as such based off just one episode, I do feel like it's something that many of my readers might take an interest in. So... putting that out there. Strike Force Five! (Thunder sound effect.) Available wherever you get your podcasts.