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Comedy Central(viewable only to the U.S and other limited countirs) is a favorite channel through which you may say you see only cheap shots but to me a new "spot" for just an an "English(what country ever)" "oriental" jokes learning.

Well...when I was watching this, from around 0:43,

The narrator

Now it's time for one of our favorite segments. Singing on motorcycles in traffic. Now, today's guest is none other than two time Academy Award winner, Daniel Day Lewis.. Let's see how he did!.

I don't know what is funny about this line even after reading Lewis Wiki page.

What is the main point?

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  • Me either, Kentaro.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Sep 28, 2020 at 3:38
  • @JackO'Flaherty Well...if the one with huge points like you don't understand, I have to ask Russian(joking^^).
    – user17814
    Sep 28, 2020 at 3:41
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    I’m voting to close this question because it is not really a question about English, but about popular culture references, specifically tropes of American late-night television talk shows.
    – choster
    Sep 28, 2020 at 5:58
  • @choster Please vote to close kindly, but how could I have known this is not an "English" matter?
    – user17814
    Sep 28, 2020 at 6:19
  • Kentaro, you're absolutely right – there's no way you could have known why you didn't understand this joke, so it's perfectly reasonable that you thought maybe the problem was linguistic in nature. Since it turns out that wasn't the case, the question probably should be closed, but I hope that won't make you hesitate to post other questions! (I sometimes have a similar issue when watching Japanese TV shows or reading Japanese books. Humor is often dependent on cultural references and assumptions that can be obvious to native speakers, but not to to non-natives.)
    – Nanigashi
    Oct 2, 2020 at 16:56

2 Answers 2

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Analysing a joke quickly makes it unfunny.

This is meant to be a low-quality variety show. Day-Lewis is a famous and serious actor, who wouldn't appear on such a show. So first joke is that it is funny to suggest that this "bad" show can get such a "good" guest. The next joke is that you can't see his face or hear his singing. So it is funny that even if they have such a "good" guest, they waste him by doing something pointless.

So it is part of the running joke: The show is ridiculously bad. It starts with a bad (and nonsense) joke "a musical about white people on skates called 'hockey'" And then the host does a dance to tell you it is a joke.... which is bad.... THere is a bad segment with bad singing and then the host gets the tone of his "please share this" all wrong, seeming threatening...

So the whole thing is a parody of a bad variety show.

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  • Thanks. When the narrator ( Tarantino ) spoke about "hockey", at first, I was completely perplexed, but I though I got it somehow. But about this one, I have no idea :)
    – user17814
    Sep 28, 2020 at 3:57
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Note that the skit is called "Buenas Noches with Diego Luca" (Spanish for Good Night/Good Evening) and is supposed to be a parody of a late-night talk shows.

I don't think Daniel Day-Lewis specifically matters much in this case. I think it could have been any other prominent figure. It seems to me that this is more of a play on "singing on motorcycles in traffic". There are some shows/bits online centered around people talking, singing, etc. in cars driving around town. The one that specifically came to my mind is Carpool Karaoke with James Corden:

Carpool Karaoke is a recurring segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden, in which host James Corden invites famous musical guests to sing along to their songs with him whilst travelling in a car driven by Corden on a planned route usually in Los Angeles, usually under the pretense of needing to get to work and preferring to use the high-occupancy carpool vehicle lane, or the pretext of needing directions from a local when in a new town, such as London (with Adele), Liverpool (with Paul McCartney), New York City (with Madonna) or Las Vegas (with Céline Dion).
(Wikipedia)

(Example: Adele Carpool Karaoke)

I see this motorcycle bit as an (intentionally) bad parody of Corden's segment. First, the name is an intentionally bad rephrasing of Carpool Karaoke: singing (= karaoke) on motorcycles in traffic (= carpooling). For the bit, they cut to the host and another person (representing Day-Lewis) riding on a motorcycle, bopping their heads and singing. But they're supposed to be in traffic, on a bike instead of being in a roomy car or van, you can hear honking, and their voices are muffled through the helmets.

It's a bad bit, but the audience still cheers and applauds it. Most of the humor lies in that. However, it is also ridiculous to think that a prominent actor (such as Day-Lewis) would lower themselves to be a part of such a bit. That's another angle to it.

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