It's a sad day for late night TV, folks, as the last episode of Chelsea Lately airs on E! on Tuesday, August 26. Chelsea Handler chose to leave E! for Netflix, but what about her writers? What are those outrageous sidekicks of her's going to do now? If you watched Handler's mockumentary spin-off TV show, After Lately , you got to see a somewhat fictionalized account of Handler's writer's room, so seeing her writers leave the television sphere is almost as bad as seeing Handler herself leave.
Handler is known for her delightfully foul mouth. I remember one of the first times I saw her on TV, she was promoting her new book, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea on a daytime talk show. And of course, I just happened to be on vacation with my family, so my grandfather was in the room. My grandfather — who I never saw judge a person in his life — just looked so displeased with her jokes about vaginas. Needless to say, it was a weird day in the living room with Pop-Pop Gallagher. So since 75-year-old men might not be her target audience, Netflix could be an awesome, even less censored switch for Handler.
The New York Daily News reported that Handler is only taking two writers with her to her Netflix show. But since the newspaper only cited a unnamed source, that could very well prove to be untrue. But let's check out what those crazy assholes are up to on their own — sans Chelsea.
Fortune Feimster
I love me some Fortune Feimster. She performed her standup in June on Comedy Central’s The Half Hour and was truly fantastic.
Now that Chelsea Lately is ending, Feimster filmed a Tina Fey pilot (it was just canned by Fox, but she's now a friend of Fey, so that can't be bad).
Jen Kirkman
She might look familiar if you’re a fan of Drunk History. Kirkman is a frequent storyteller on the Comedy Central series that started as a Funny of Die webseries. Can I have her career please? I'm pretty sure my dream job is to drunkenly narrate something in history that I'm passionate about and have Winona Ryder act it out for me.
Jeff "Jiffy" Wild and Josh Wolf
In an interview with Laughspin, Jeff "Jiffy" Wild said, "The cool thing about Chelsea Lately is that there’s truly a cast." So, how's the round table regular handling the news that the show is ending? Well, luckily, Wild joined forces with another Chelsea Lately writer with an outrageously-awesome-couldn't-possibly-be-real last name — Josh Wolf. Together, the two have formed The Wild Wolf Band.
Their song "Hungover" brought tears to my eyes for its accuracy and raw emotion. I truly felt the pain they were feeling when they couldn't get an Egg McMuffin at noon. THIS is the voice of our generation. (Or at least the voice of me when I'm hungover.)
Heather McDonald
It doesn't seem like Heather McDonald will be joining the The Real Housewives of Orange County, but that's OK cause you can catch her on Showtime for McDonald's comedy special that airs on Friday, August 29 at 9 p.m. She's also written two books, including My Inappropriate Life.
So you see, fans of Chelsea Lately, there's no reason to fret. These inappropriate douches may not be on your TV for a bit, but they sure as hell won't be gone for long. And if you really need your fix, Handler's writers are also big on social media, so follow them on Twitter and get the hilarity of these writers plus Chris Franjola, Brad Wollack, Ian Karmel — and don't forget Chuy Bravo! — on the regular.
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