About 20 minutes after I watched the PURE JOY that is Tiffany Haddish meeting Oprah Winfrey for the first time, I saw this tweet from my favourite ex-Grantland writer, Rembert Browne.
i'd watch 100 episodes of the show "Oprah Surprises Famous Black People Who Never Thought They'd Meet Oprah" https://t.co/9Epf4zsWOI
— Rembert Browne (@rembert) February 22, 2018
Netflix, Rembert just gave you a million-dollar idea. GET ON THIS. Oprah Surprises Famous Black People Who Never Thought They'd Meet Oprah is already my new favourite TV show. The first guest was Tiffany Haddish, technically on The Ellen DeGeneres Show but Ellen really didn’t need to be there. Can you win Emmys for guest appearances on talk shows? Tiffany is so damn GOOD as a talk show guest I want her to be recognized for her brilliance in this specific medium. It takes skill to make a daytime talk show segment as entertaining as Tiffany does (I would know, I produce them for a living.) Even before Oprah shows up, Tiffany is charming the hell out of Ellen and the audience by re-pitching her “Tiff and O’s” vegetable garden business plan. Tiffany explained that her name goes first because Oprah is “not gonna show up.” I’m not even going to set this up any further. You just need to watch it all unfold. Take five minutes out of your day. You’ll thank me when you’re crying from laughter 30 seconds into the clip.
“YOU DIDN’T LEAVE.” I would have cried real tears if I wasn’t laughing so hard watching this. Of course, Tiffany Haddish freaked out meeting Oprah. It’s OPRAH. The emotion here is genuine. What kills me is that Tiffany’s comedic timing stays intact. She keeps it together enough to deliver the “but I sent you six!” letters line and the “Should I write Gayle?” quip pitch perfectly.
After a season of Oprah Surprises Famous Black People Who Never Thought They'd Meet Oprah, can we get a reality show documenting Tiffany Haddish and Oprah getting “Tiff and O’s Vegetables” off the ground? I actually can’t think of 2 minutes and 45 seconds of television that brought me as much joy as watching this cooking segment with Tiff, O and Ellen.
The way she starts calling Oprah “Auntie O” like five minutes after meeting her destroys me. PUT TIFFANY HADDISH IN EVERYTHING. I don’t know if MTV was listening to me yell those five words into my computer screen but yesterday they announced that Tiffany Haddish will be hosting the 2018 MTV Movie and TV Awards. Of course she is. It’s a good gig that has previously gone to some of the biggest names in comedy like Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer and Conan O’Brien. Tiffany Haddish absolutely deserves to be in their company (she breathes funnier than Amy Schumer’s entire standup routine) but I almost think this gig is beneath her right now. Sarah wrote about how Tiffany is everywhere. She’s fending off opportunities. I’m torn between wanting to see her do everything and wanting her to only do the things worthy of her talent.
At least the MTV Movie and TV Awards just got a whole lot more entertaining.