If imitation is the highest form of flattery – even if that imitation is totally off the rails – then Greg Gutfeld still has a warm place in his heart for Tucker Carlson.
The self-styled “king of late-night” (whose Fox News show is now technically in primetime, details), appeared as a guest on his own show this week to talk about his new book, “The King of Late Night,” which somehow wasn’t as awkward as it sounds.
With guest-host Tom Shillue sitting in as “host,” Gutfeld fielded questions (provided by Gutfeld, Shillue admitted) about his book, including why the polarizing political punster-poet chose to tackle a nightly show when he was already in a cushy job as a panelist on Fox’s daily ratings champ “The Five.”
“Now, do you want to talk about the fact that you were ambivalent or unsure about going nightly?” Shillue asked.
“Yes. I didn’t want to do it because I have a target on my back and I hate that – being on ‘The Five’ (where he recently drew fire directly from the White House for his comments on Nazi concentration camps).
“Do I need more of that stress?” he continued. “So I talked to [Dennis Miller], and he said ‘You shouldn’t do it. You have a great gig. Relax. You don’t need to work too hard. You should be working less.”
Gutfeld said at that point, he told his Fox News betters that he wasn’t interested – but a subsequent phone call with Carlson changed his mind. And here’s where Gutfeld went into full-on Carlson impersonation, including a tight-wound upper register and long pauses for hyena laughter:
“I decided to call Tucker, and Tucker was like, ‘Are you crazy? Of course you have to do the show! Why wouldn’t you do it? That’s why you are here!”
Watch and listen in the video clip above.
