It's a Great Day for America, Everybody!

If you've me for any length of time, you know that the recent late night happenings at NBC don't effect me, as my late night show of choice is The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I've been a fan of the show since Craig was an auditioning guest host in late 2004, probably about the only time I've ever been happy to have been unemployed in that I got to watch his run from its beginning.

To be honest, I don't know why David Letterman went with Craig after the open auditions to fill the seat of Craig Kilborn, but I'm glad he did. What we've gotten in return is an intelligent show, which doesn't take itself too seriously, and provides consistently funny material. What other shows on late night television can say that? Should Craig still have this gig when Dave retires, I hope they give the Late Show to him.

Many times as of late, the cold open of the show has featured puppets doing routines to varied tunes, with overacting and lip syncing to boot. The recent 1,000th episode of the show was in fact hosted by a puppet, one alligator named Wavy Ranchero to be exact.

With an assist from the capable trolling of the interwebs by my good friend Alley (one word: pterodactyls. Really, just one word. The other word in the search term just makes it disturbing on so many levels), here is a collection of the puppet routines and some of the other great moments from the Late Late Show.

Puppet Musical Cold Opens (all of them to date)

As a side note, the guy in the leather outfit is on Craig's staff and wears that for every show.

• "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti and Spearhead -
• "White Lines" by Duran Duran
• "Wonderful Night" by Fatboy Slim -
• "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants
• "Oops!...I Did It Again" by Britney Spears
• "MMMBop" by Hanson
• "In the Navy" by Village People
• "Fireball" by Don Spencer
• "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
• "The Lonely Goatherd" from The Sound of Music
• "She Taught Me How To Yodel" by Frank Ifield -
• "Fire" by The Prodigy
• "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" --by B.J. Thomas (that's who originally did the song. Don't know who is doing this.)

Selected Non-Musical Puppet Intros

• Bob the Dragon--now with terrible ventriloquism?
• Shark--"Shark Week"
• Giraffe--who knew they liked Jagermeister?
• Pig--Craig ran a puppet popularity contest this past summer, but the leader in the polls had to drop out due to an affair with an Argentine woman. Sound familiar?
• Craig Ferguson--(this one's just a wee bit creepy.)

Wavy with Friends of the Show

• Lauren Graham
• Kristen Bell--from the 1,000th show.

Other Interesting Stuff (or "On a Very Special Episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson):

• Craig on voting--He became an American citizen in 2008 and voted in his first election that year. If my mom had a computer, I would send this to her (to my knowledge, she's never voted, and it's always driven me nuts). This episode originally aired September 10, 2008.
  
• Craig provides a history of apartheid in South Africa and then spend the balance of the March 4, 2009 show with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (three parts: A, B and C)
• Giving a eulogy for his dad. This show was later nominated for an Emmy (January 30, 2006 show) in two parts: A and B
  
• Craig on why he won't make Britney Spears jokes (this originally aired on February 19, 2007, around the time of her meltdown)
• Craig's Sept. 11 monologue from 2009.
  
• The theme song (this has always been the theme. It's just since the show went to HD that it got this production number)