Time to Play DVR Bouncer: What Late Night Talk Show Guests are You Letting into Your Exclusive Club?

Aaron Paul and Aubrey Plaza recently set a corner of the internet on fire with their respective talk show appearances. Both were on Conan, both were awesome interviews- clips here and here.

Missing them both wasn’t a huge deal, since the highlights were captured on sites I visit daily such as UPROXX and Pajiba, but it would have been nice to catch their interviews in their entirety.

I used to go through the guide and check who was scheduled to be on Fallon, Kimmel, Conan and Letterman each week, and set the DVR to record the ones I was interested in. For some reason I stopped doing that a while back, and I’m not sure why. It certainly wasn’t the result of dwindling DVR storage space, as the summer recording schedule is light. So today I stand (sit) before you in this post-Paul/Plaza world of late night talk show options and hereby promise to begin recording those promising looking episodes again. But which interviewees make the cut?

That’s where this list comes in. This is the list of invitees that your own private DVR bouncer has attached to a clipboard, flipping through the pages with his thumbs that are wider than my biceps, checking for names while the line grows.

This is the “short list” of celebrities who we are letting into the ultra-exclusive DVR Club.

DVR me, bitch

I’ll start, then you hit the comments and tell me who would get past your own personal DVR bouncer. Here’s the thing: your club is cramped. There isn’t unlimited space in your DVR club so let’s cap the list at 5. What 5 celebrities’ talk show appearances are MUST DVR for you?

Here’s mine:

Jake Johnson

Jake Johnson is the latest in a long and undeniably genuine line of actors who are the exact same person in their on-screen roles and in real life. He seems like a legit great guy, and I’m always entertained by his appearances.

There’s always a chance he could do this too

Bill Hader

Hader is refreshingly candid in interviews- he gives rare insight into SNL backstage happenings (especially now that he’s gone) and celebrity inter-relationships, and he has no qualms with baggin’ on Justin Bieber. I’m taking his appearances on Howard Stern into account here, even though I can’t DVR those. My club, my rules.

Julie Bowen

The last time she was on Kimmel she lost a bet and gave Jimmy control of her Twitter account. And THOSE LEGS.

Harland Williams

Harland has a lifetime pass into any club I ever have control over. The guy is a complete talk show ace- every one of his appearances are hilarious. It seems like he never cares enough about what he’s promoting to not veer completely off track and try to make the host laugh by spitting out the most random thing he can think of. His jokes are vintage 6th-grader, but they always hit the right notes for me.

Jack Hanna

Go ahead, laugh at me- but Hanna’s appearances on the Late Show bring the absolute best out of Letterman. Dave is on top of his game when his old pal Jack is on set, and Hanna’s primary objective is to fluster the host by making an off-beat reference or plopping some terrifying creature on his desk. Conservatively, I’d estimate that I’ve DVRed over 20 Jack Hanna appearances on Late Show, and I’ve laughed out loud at every one.

You might not include Jack Hanna on your “short list”, but I’ll have the only club in town with river otters, cheetahs and holy crap I just realized Stefon will be at my club.

Your turn!